Richard J. Daley was the extremely powerful Democratic mayor of Chicago who was determined to control the Chicago Freedom Movement before it unlocked his political machine’s grip on the city. Daley was born in a working class neighborhood of Chicago, and … Continue reading →

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born into poverty near rural Stonewall, Texas, in 1908. From these roots, he would later become a President who stressed fighting poverty, strengthening education, and improving race relations. Although his family was poor, his mother ensured he … Continue reading →

Kale Williams has had an active career in human rights advocacy, most of it in Chicago. A veteran of service in the U. S. Navy in World War II and a graduate of the University of Chicago, he became a pacifist … Continue reading →

James Bevel was the charismatic Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) field general who organized and led many of the actions of the Chicago Freedom Movement. Born in Mississippi in 1936, Bevel came to the civil rights movement after training to be a minister at the … Continue reading →

Edwin “Bill” Berry was the aggressive leader of the Chicago Urban League who served as a leader of the Chicago Freedom Movement. Berry was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and educated at Oberlin College. Still, he had trouble finding employment after college and therefore … Continue reading →

Martin Luther King, Jr., the pre-eminent non-violent leader of the black civil rights movement, came to Chicago in 1966 in an attempt to confront de facto segregation in the urban North. King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, the … Continue reading →

Dorothy Tillman came to Chicago to participate in the Chicago Freedom Movement in 1965 and is now one of the political leaders in the city of Chicago. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Dorothy Wright joined the civil rights movement as a teenager. Impressed by … Continue reading →

Bernard LaFayette, Jr., was the first of the leading southern civil rights activists to turn to organizing in Chicago. In 1964, he was recruited to work for the Chicago office of the American Friends Service Committee. He began working on the city’s … Continue reading →

Jesse Jackson is a long-time civil rights leader and political activist who played an important role in the Chicago Freedom Movement. Born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1941, he attended the University of Illinois and North Carolina A&T, and came to Chicago in … Continue reading →

Addie L. Wyatt drew on her experience in the American labor movement to become a national leader for social justice, civil rights, and women’s rights. Wyatt was born in Mississippi in 1924 and soon her family followed other African Americans to Mississippi. … Continue reading →