JCUA’s Submits Testimony to City Council Raising Concern on Proposed Ordinance Tightening Protest Regulations

On Tuesday January 17, 2012, JCUA  submitted a testimony to Mayor Rahm Emanuel regarding its proposed ordinance for tightening protest regulations.

 

JEWISH COUNCIL ON URBAN AFFAIRS

January 17, 2012

Testimony by Jane Ramsey on Mayor Emanuel proposed changes to the city’s parade ordinance governing protests and marches.

 

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, founded nearly 50 years ago, to tackle poverty, racism and anti-Semitism in partnership with Chicago’s diverse communities, calls upon the Mayor and the City Council to ensure that Chicago residents’ rights to peaceful protest are protected.   As a democracy and a City that cherishes the expression and hearing of many voices on important matters impacting our communities and everyday lives, it is crucial that citizens’ rights to gather peacefully and to protest not be infringed upon as the City plans for the gathering of the G8.  We urge the Mayor and the City Council to ensure that, in submitting new ordinances regarding this event or any others, that no infringements, such as increases in fines for resisting arrest, size of placards, or limitations regarding permit requests for gatherings and parades are included and that the laws regarding such gatherings and parades that have been in place for many years are undisturbed.

As we showcase Chicago with opportunities such as the meeting of the G8, let us ensure that we highlight the greatness of our City, especially its embrace of its commitment to democracy and its citizens’ rights to public expression.

Or Tzedek’s Winter Leadership Retreat: Dec. 28-30

In 1903, Rose Schneiderman organized women garment workers in her factory to charter the first women’s local branch of her union. She was 21 when she became a leader in the fight for workers’ rights.

In 1960, Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Ezell Blair, Jr. ordered food at a “Whites only” Woolworth’s Counter and refused to leave when they were not served. They were college freshman when they engineered the first sit-in of the civil rights movement.

In 1966, David A. Reed, David P. O’Brien, David Benson, and John A. Phillips burned their draft cards. They were 19, 19, 18, and 22, respectively, when they took a public stand against the Vietnam War.

How will teens change the world in 2011?

Journey to Freedom: Reflecting on the King Memorial

In the 1960s, Rabbi Robert J. Marx marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago and Alabama and fought for civil rights in Chicago and beyond. Rabbi Marx is the founder and a past president of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, where he continues to be an active board member, leader and mentor. He is the Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, Ill., which he founded in 1983.

By Rabbi Robert J. Marx

(Marvin Joseph/Getty Images)

Time affirms what heroism discerns. The dedication of a statue in memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is a belated yet significant tribute to a man who did so much to redefine the meaning of our democracy.

Make no mistake about it, there was a civil rights movement in the middle years of the 20th century, but King was the face of the movement, the pulse of it — one might even say the heart of it.

The memorial in Washington, D.C., about to be dedicated to his memory is made of solid stone, of granite. It will remain for the ages, solid and unmoving, a reminder of what dedication and courage are able to achieve.

Save the Date: Jurisprudence Dinner 2011

Lowell Sachnoff

We’re thrilled to announce that longtime JCUA friend, civil rights activist and attorney Lowell Sachnoff, will be the recipient of the Arthur Goldberg Social Justice Award as part of JCUA’s 2011 Jurisprudence Social Justice Awards Dinner. Board members Abner Mikva and David Graham will co-chair the event.

Please hold the date of Wednesday, November 16, 2011, from 5:30- 8:45 p.m. for the 2011 Jurisprudence Social Justice Awards Dinner.  The dinner will be held at the Fairmont Chicago, 200 N. Columbus Drive, in the International Ballroom.

For more information contact Pamela Klier-Weidner at pamela@jcua.org.

Sen. Durbin to Chair First-Ever Hearing on Civil Rights of American Muslims

Photo credit: CBS

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs applauds Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) for organizing a congressional hearing on the civil rights of American Muslims. As a country committed to religious freedom and civil rights, we need to ensure that all religious groups are protected and welcomed into the rich and diverse fabric of our society. The Jewish community knows too well the dangers of bigotry and hate speech. JCUA welcomes hearings to protect the civil rights of a community increasingly under attack. [See the below news release from Sen. Durbin's office for more information.]

Durbin to Chair First-Ever Hearing on the Civil Rights of American Muslims

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced today that he will hold the first-ever congressional hearing on the civil rights of American Muslims on Tuesday, March 29, 2011. The hearing will be the first hearing before the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. Senator Durbin is the Subcommittee’s Chairman.

“Our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion for all Americans,” Durbin said. “During the course of our history, many religions have faced intolerance. It is important for our generation to renew our founding charter’s commitment to religious diversity and to protect the liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.”

The hearing is in response to the spike in anti-Muslim bigotry in the last year including Quran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination. Next week’s hearing will consider measures to protect the civil rights of American Muslims.

A distinguished panel of witnesses will testify including Muslim civil rights leader Farhana Khera; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick; Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, the Obama Administration’s top civil rights official; and former Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta, the Bush Administration’s top civil rights official.

The Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights was formed by merging the Constitution Subcommittee and the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, which Durbin previously chaired. The Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all constitutional issues, and all legislation and policy related to civil rights, civil liberties and human rights. The Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. ET in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

[View a live feed of the hearing on C-SPAN]

Rev. Calvin Morris Reflects on the Civil Rights Movement

Rev. Calvin S. Morris, Community Renewal Society

Rev. Calvin S. Morris, Ph.D. serves as Executive Director of the Community Renewal Society, a faith-based social justice advocacy organization in Chicago focusing on race and poverty. A civil rights and human rights activist, he worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., serving as Associate Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation BreadBasket (now Operation PUSH) in Chicago from 1967-71. He was Executive Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, from 1973-76. He was also a university professor and theological dean from 1976-1998. Morris is frequently invited to preach, speak and lecture.

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When I came to Chicago in 1967, ostensibly to work on a PhD at the University of Chicago, where I had been admitted hoping to study under the famed African-American historian John Hope Franklin, those intentions were derailed by my college friend, Jesse Louis Jackson, and his challenge to me that it was time to make more concrete my commitment to the Civil Rights Movement of that day. It was an offer I could not refuse, and sometime thereafter I met Rabbi Robert Marx, founder of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

A 1968 Operation BreadBasket rally in Illinois (photo from LIFE.com)

Accepting Jesse’s invitation, I moved to join the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation BreadBasket in Chicago. Dr. King was the leader of SCLC and we all served at his pleasure. Rabbi Marx, Rev. Clay Evans, the late Al Raby and Rev. Arthur Griffin, along with the Rev. Donald Benedict, Executive Director of Community Renewal Society, were individuals among many who had invited Dr. King to Chicago the year before.