This year's MLK Day Celebration and Public Meeting (organized by SOUL in partnership with Northside POWER and the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations) took place in St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Hyde Park this Sunday. It brought together a diverse crowd of an estimated 1200 people from across the Chicagoland area, as we gathered to celebrate the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


The celebration included song and dance, and speeches invoking the work of Dr. King, but it involved more than that. Dr. King's legacy is a dream for racial and economic justice which remains unfulfilled, and this means that a right celebration of his legacy must involve a continuation of his struggle for justice. And so SOUL and our partner organizations invited some of the most important elected officials in the land to join us at the event, in order to make concrete and public policy commitments.

Among those who accepted the invitation were Governor Pat Quinn, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Alexi Giannoulias and David Hoffman (frontrunners for the Democratic nomination to Obama's former Senate seat), as well as a number of state legislators and Chicago Alderman.

Alderman Joe Moore agreed to support a plan for affordable housing in Rogers Park. He was then joined by a number of his colleagues in City Council, and together they agreed to support SOUL and the rest of the Good Jobs Chicago Coalition in our push for a Community Benefits Agreement binding upon Wal-Mart (and other big-box retailers).


At the state level, Governor Quinn pledged to do his part to ensure that one of SOUL's great victories in 2009, the $425 million Urban Weatherization Initiative, would be implemented in a way that would bring long-term, living wage jobs to those who need it most.


Governor Quinn also reiterated his support for a measure which all serious commentators recognize to be essential to solving Illinois' dire budget crisis: an increase in the state income tax, coupled with relief for lower income brackets, of the sort which would be implemented by HB 174. State legislators from both the House and the Senate were asked to make their own commitments to vote and fight for HB 174 (or similar legislation). All those present agreed, including Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, Majority Leader in the House, where HB 174 stalled last year.


And, at the federal level, Congresswoman Schakowsky, and candidates Giannoulias and Hoffman agreed to two commitments designed to fight urban decay and promote healthy urban development. First, to support the Livable Communities Act, which promotes sustainable development through the coordination of agencies responsible for housing, energy, transportation, and economic development; second, to support measures in the next federal transportation bill which would see more money going towards infrastructure and public transit within cities, and less for highways heading out to further and further flung suburbs.


The commitments these officials were asked to make address some of the most serious issues in the Chicagoland area and the state of Illinois today. And although a lot of this post has focused on these few politicians, the people in the rest of the pews were also essential to making everything happen. The officials who were in attendance are very important people (to say the least) and many would not have shown up if they hadn't known they would be greeted by over 1000 organized people. The power exhibited by this massive turnout is also the key to holding them accountable to their commitments, and furthering the work MLK did so much to advance. Thanks to all who attended!

(by Toby Chow)