Which figure would you memorialize in Chicago?
January 20, 2022
Lorraine Hansbury
“She’s a great playwright and she died way too young. She’s a brilliant, inspirational human being, and we need to remember her. And then there needs to be a building on the University of Chicago, named after her ’cause she lived right across the Midway.” – Suggested by Paul Horton
Fred Hampton
“He was one of the Black Panthers, and he was unjustly killed in his home, and I think it would resonate with a lot of the recent upticks in police violence that African Americans have faced. So I think Fred Hampton would be good.” – Suggested by Mariah Bender
Tammy Duckworth
“I really like Tammy Duckworth because she’s a Thai Chinese politician, and she’s done a lot for Asian American rights. And I think specifically during this time period with COVID-19 and the Stop Asian Hate Movement she’s been very influential, so I really admire all the work she’s done for the Asian American community.” – Suggested by Amelie Liu
Frederick Douglass
“Frederick Douglass would be cool. Just because recently, I’ve been learning a lot about him and… I knew him as like sort of his name on the peripheral, but I didn’t fully understand his contributions to sort of abolishing slavery and sort of how much he established for, like, resistance of minority groups. And so, I would like to see him be, like, more prominent in the cultural consciousness, and that might be a way to do it.” – Suggested by Aasha Atluri
Chief Keef
“Well, I feel actually though he was kind of like revolutionary for the rap game and I think, like, in that time, his music became really popular when, like, police brutalization and racial, like, problems kind of started up, and I think his music really a gave, like, a lot of people motivation to be like, ‘F*** the police, you know, even though you know, respectfully… Yeah, I think he was a voice for a lot of minorities, actually.” – Suggested by Kennedi Bickham