Black Caucus Chair wants to rename City College Kennedy-King-Jackson College
In 1969, student demonstrations at Woodrow Wilson Junior College forced a renaming to Kennedy-King College to honor Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., both of whom had been assassinated the year before.
If the chair of the City Council’s Black Caucus has her way, a third name would be added to the college in the South Side’s Englewood community: the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th), whose South Side ward includes Kennedy-King, wants the City Colleges board to rename the school located at 6301 S. Halsted as "Kennedy-King-Jackson College.”
At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Coleman plans to introduce a resolution that “formally requests” the City Colleges board to “take all necessary administrative and legal actions to effectuate” the name change.
Her resolution argues that adding Jackson’s name to the South Side college would create a “historic Civil Rights Trinity, uniting the three most influential figures of that era” on a single marquee.
She called Kennedy, King and Jackson “the visionary, the orator and the organizer” and said the name change would bring the three civil rights icons “into a single beacon of education excellence.”
Jackson spent a lifetime fighting for voting rights, economic, social and educational justice while also making two historic runs for President and freeing hostages around the world. He died last month at the age of 84.
“For over 60 years, Rev. Jackson was a tireless advocate for the Englewood community and a frequent presence at Kennedy-King College, championing the `I Am Somebody’ spirit and fighting for the educational resources and economic empowerment of its students,” the resolution states.
The resolution goes on to state that the renaming would "ensure that future generations of Chicagoans understand that the movement for equality did not end in 1968, but was sustained by the grit and grace of a Chicagoan who dedicated 60 years to the `Education of the Soul.’ “
The City Colleges website notes that Kennedy-King was “established under public pressure during the Great Depression after the city and school board, faced with a budget crisis, were forced to shut down Crane Junior College.”
Wilson’s first graduating class included Gwendolyn Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize winner who was appointed Illinois’ Poet Laureate in 1968.
U.S. Rep. Jonathon Jackson (D-Il.) said hasn’t really thought about the most appropriate way to honor his father’s memory.
“It’s flattering for the consideration, but I just haven’t thought about any of this. I will probably be in a better position in about another week,” Jonathon Jackson said Tuesday.
“Today is Mom’s birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m just on my way out to vote….I have not talked to my mother about it. I just got back in literally from Washington D.C….Tonight’s a voting night. Give me a week after we get through this election and I’ll be glad to share with you any thoughts I have.”
The proposal to make Jackson’s the third name on the Kennedy-King marquee is the second in, what will almost certainly be a string of renaming proposals.
State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) has already proposed renaming the South side stretch of the Dan Ryan Expressway between 47th and 95th Street as the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Memorial Highway.
Buckner was a defensive standout for the University of Illinois, where Jackson played quarterback on scholarship. They belonged to the same U of I fraternity.
In a press release and on Instagram, Buckner argued that it makes sense to rename a central artery through several historic Black neighborhoods for Jackson, who spent a lifetime building bridges.
“That corridor isn’t just concrete. It’s a front porch for Black Chicago,” Buckner said. “It’s Bronzeville, Greater Grand Crossing, Chatham, Roseland — generations of families, churches, small businesses, organizers and everyday people who built this city, even when the city was not built for them.
In 2018, Jackson joined Father Michael Pfleger and other activists in shutting down the Dan Ryan Expressway to shine a glaring spotlight on crime, poverty and unemployment plaguing inner-city neighborhoods.
Then-Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson marched shoulder-to-shoulder with Jackson and Pfleger, infuriating then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, who thought a compromise had been brokered with the protesters that would have shut down only half the northbound lanes.
“This is unacceptable. We had clear parameters that allowed the protesters to be heard while respecting law and order. Instead, they chose instead to cause chaos,” Rauner said in a posting on social media that day.
Rauner demanded that then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel “do his job” and “put an end to this kind of chaos” to keep people safe.
Emanuel refused, telling his former friend and vacation buddy on social media, “It was a peaceful protest."