Bill Text: IL HR0679 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Marquette Park March. Honors the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby. Reaffirms the commitment to continuing the fight for fair housing and economic justice for all Illinoisans.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 23)

Status: (Passed) 2026-05-14 - Added Co-Sponsor Rep. Maurice A. West, II [HR0679 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-HR0679-Introduced.html

---

HR0679 LRB104 20769 ECR 34275 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives wish to commemorate the 60th anniversary of
the Marquette Park March in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, August 5, 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of the
historic 1966 march through Marquette Park, a pivotal chapter
in the civil rights movement and the Chicago Freedom Movement
led by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby; and
WHEREAS, Working with a coalition of civil rights
organizations known as the Coordinating Council of Community
Organizations (CCCO), educator and activist Albert Raby
invited Dr. King to move to Chicago to help launch the Chicago
Freedom Movement, a campaign to expand the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference's (SCLC) civil rights activities from
the South to northern cities; and
WHEREAS, Groundwork for the Chicago Freedom Movement began
in the summer of 1965 when Dr. King was invited by civil rights
activists to Chicago to help lead a demonstration against de
facto segregation in education, housing, and employment; and
WHEREAS, In consultation with the SCLC, the CCCO decided
this campaign should be geared specifically at achieving fair

HR0679 - 2 - LRB104 20769 ECR 34275 r
housing practices; and
WHEREAS, In January 1966, Dr. King moved into a
third-floor apartment in the North Lawndale neighborhood of
Chicago's West Side to draw international attention to the
systemic disinvestment facing Northern urban centers,
including shabby and dilapidated housing; and
WHEREAS, Throughout the spring and summer of 1966, Dr.
King helped the campaign gain momentum through demonstrations
and marches, even as he faced the organizational challenges of
mobilizing Chicago's diverse African American community; and
WHEREAS, On July 10, 1966, over 30,000 people braved a
98-degree heat wave at Soldier Field to hear Dr. King declare
that the movement was "tired of being lynched spiritually and
economically in the North"; and
WHEREAS, On August 5, 1966, Dr. King led hundreds of
demonstrators into the Marquette Park area to protest
discriminatory real estate practices and to demand the right
for African Americans to rent, own, and sell property on a
nondiscriminatory basis; and
WHEREAS, The marchers were met by a mob of approximately
700 counter-protesters, who shouted racist slurs and hateful

HR0679 - 3 - LRB104 20769 ECR 34275 r
slogans while attacking marchers, legal observers, and police
officers with a torrent of bricks, bottles, and rocks,
including one of which that struck Dr. King and knocked him to
one knee; and
WHEREAS, Dr. King stated after the attack, "I have never
seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hostile and as
hate-filled as I've seen here in Chicago"; and
WHEREAS, The courage displayed by these marchers led to a
summit agreement with Mayor Richard J. Daley and real estate
leaders, which Dr. King called "the most significant program
ever conceived to make open housing a reality", eventually
paving the way for the passage and enactment of the federal
Fair Housing Act of 1968; and
WHEREAS, The seeds sown in Marquette Park contributed to
the eventual election of Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold
Washington, whose campaign was managed by Al Raby, in 1983 and
to the election of Barack Obama as the first Black president of
the United States in 2008 after he was inspired to move to
Chicago by Harold Washington's election; and
WHEREAS, The legacy of the Chicago Freedom Movement lives
on through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Living Memorial in
Marquette Park; therefore, be it

HR0679 - 4 - LRB104 20769 ECR 34275 r
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Marquette Park
March, and we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
and Albert Raby; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we reaffirm our commitment to continuing
the fight for fair housing and economic justice for all
Illinoisans.