1950s: MLK Jr, civil rights movements and SCLC: Chicago Freedom Movement

The Chicago Freedom Movement of 1966 was led by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel and Al Raby. This Freedom movement consisted of large rallies, marches and demands to the city. The demands covered a wide range of areas like:

1. Open housing

2. Quality education

3. Transportation and job access

4. Income and employment

5. Health

6. Wealth generation

7. Crime and the criminal justice system

8. Community development

9. Tenants Rights

10. Quality of life

The intention of the Chicago Freedom Movement was to end slums in the city of Chicago. For this movement the alliances were the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO). They organized:

1. Tenants' unions

2. Assumed control of a slum tenement

3. Founded action groups (Operation Breadbasket)

4. Rallied black and white Chicagoans to support goals

On July 10, 1966 Martin Luther King Jr. organized a large rally at Soldier Field. This rally at Soldier Field was attended by 35,000 people for Martin Luther King Jr.'s first 'freedom rally'. Marches and rallies were often meet with hostile and violent responses by local whites. Martin Luther King once said that even in Alabama and Mississippi he had not encountered mobs as hostile to Blacks' civil rights as those in Chicago.

The Chicago Freedom March lost much of its focus and momentum by early 1967 when Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel and the SCLC turned to other projects like the anti-Vietnam War Movement. The Chicago Freedom Movement is considered the most ambitious civil rights campaign in the North. This movement would led to the 1968 Fair Housing Act.