Chicago Freedom Movement

Chicago Freedom Movement
Chicago Freedom Movement
Part of the Civil Rights Movement
Date	1965–1966 (2 years)
Location	Chicago, Illinois
Caused by	De facto racial segregation in education, housing, and employment; SCLC's establishment of a campaign in the Northern United States;
Resulted in	Freedom Sunday rally and Chicago City Hall march led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966; Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket established in 1966; Summit Agreement produced on August 26, 1966; Unaffiliated march in Cicero, September 1966; Formation of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities (LCMOC); Book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967; Catalyst for the enactment of Fair Housing Act of 1968;
Parties
Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO); American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC);	Chicago City Hall; Chicago Board of Education; Chicago Housing Authority; Chicago Real Estate Board; Chicago Mortgage Bankers Association;
Lead figures
	CCCO member Al Raby; AFSC members Kale Williams; Bernard Lafayette; David Jehnsen; Bill Moyer; SCLC members Martin Luther King Jr.; James Bevel; Jesse Jackson; Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley; Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools Benjamin Willis;

The Chicago Freedom Movement, also known as the Chicago open housing movement, was led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel^[1]^[2] and Al Raby. It was supported by the Chicago-based Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The movement included a large rally, marches, and demands to the City of Chicago. These specific demands covered a wide range of areas besides open housing, and included quality education, transportation and job access, income and employment, health, wealth generation, crime and the criminal justice system, community development, tenants rights, and quality of life. Operation Breadbasket, in part led by Jesse Jackson, sought to harness African-American consumer power. The Chicago Freedom Movement was the most ambitious civil rights campaign in the North of the United States, lasted from mid-1965 to August 1966, and is largely credited with inspiring the 1968 Fair Housing Act.^[3]^[4]

^ "James L. Bevel The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement" by Randall Kryn, a paper in David Garrow's 1989 book We Shall Overcome, Volume II, Carlson Publishing Company
^ "Randy Kryn: Movement Revision Research Summary Regarding James Bevel – Chicago Freedom Movement". cfm40.middlebury.edu. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
^ "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement 1954–1985". PBS Online / WGBH. Retrieved November 29, 2010.
^ Kotz, Nick (2005). "14. Another Martyr". Judgment days : Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the laws that changed America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 417. ISBN 0-618-08825-3.