The
opening day of events for the 40th Annual Conference of the Rainbow PUSH
Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund was held Saturday at the civil rights
organization's headquarters, 930 E. 50th Street. This year's conference focuses
on upholding the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.
Rainbow
PUSH Founder and President Rev. Jesse L. Jackson was flanked by a bevy of local
and national leaders as opening day – with its “Chaos to the Community...Where
do we go from here?” theme – doubled as the weekly television taping for the
organization.
A panel
of civil rights advocates, policy makers and legislators offered solutions to
social disparities that they agreed continues plague urban communities and the
working poor.
"If
we don't deal with taking back our civil rights. We will be marginalized,"
Foster Stringer, a Rainbow PUSH member, said Saturday.
Then,
popular talk show and radio host, author and political commentator Tavis Smiley
moderated a panel discussion with the wrongfully convicted. The session
addressed how these individuals can put their lives back together after serving
time for crimes they didn't commit.
It was a
subject very familiar to Oscar Walden Jr.
In 1951,
he was sentenced and spent 14 years in prison for a rape he says he didn't
commit. He was released in 1965 and has since been pardoned by former Illinois
Gov. George Ryan.
"I
think we need to pursue the innocence of prisoners and their releases,"
Walden told the Defender.
At
Sunday's jobs rally, other economic, union and political leaders joined Jackson
in calling for a national spotlight on unemployment, workers rights and voting
rights.
Jackson
told the crowd of people packed into a PUSH headquarters ante room that
legislation on the issues has been “too slow,” litigation has been marred in
red tape and it is “now time for a massive street demonstration.”
Bennett
College for Women (Greensboro, S.C.) President Julianne Malveaux said
disparities in employment status, education and some civil rights are “helping
to make our nation a third world nation.”
And
Robert Borosage, founder and president of the Institute for America's future,
said “the only thing that's going to stop this ... is if people get up and make
themselves heard. ... As bad as you think things are, they're worse,” he said
Sunday.
After the
press conference dozens of people handed their resume to the SEIU International
union president, Mary Kay Henry, who said she would take the resumes and assist
PUSH with matching them to employers taking part in the convention's job fair.
Monday
saw the convention move to the Chicago Hilton and Towers, 720 S. Michigan Ave.,
for the remainder of its run. Gov. Pat Quinn spoke at the business luncheon
attended by a number of top corporations, entrepreneurs, state legislators and
others. The Comcast NBCUniversal deal was one of several discussions held
during the day. Then Monday night, the organization's youth charity arm, PUSH
Excel, awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships to college-bound students.
PUSH Excel boasts giving more than $3 million in scholarships in the last 30
years.
Tuesday's
agenda focused on housing issues, including foreclosures, and faith leaders. An
athletic banquet that night and a veteran's roundtable and women's luncheon on
Wednesday would help close out PUSH's 40th annual convention.
Copyright
2011 Chicago Defender
