An Elgin-based community group that recently joined the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition held a rally Monday to encourage membership and use the civil rights organization’s influence to spotlight racial inequity.
The group, formerly known as Concerned Citizens of the Northwest Suburbs, has been renamed the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition for the Northwest Suburbs, said Rev. Walter Blalark, its founder. The Elgin organization’s work began in September with publicizing allegations of police brutality, and it held a protest in October in front of the Police Department and City Hall.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended the group’s meeting Monday night, said the move in Elgin is part of the coalition’s efforts to form affiliate chapters across Illinois to focus on issues such as funding disparities among public schools, fairness in employment and job creation.
“People here [in Elgin] need support and to know they are not in isolation,” he said.
Specifically, Jackson said he wants to address allegations of police brutality in Elgin as well as concerns about racial inequalities in Elgin-based School District U-46.
Blalark said he hopes the affiliation with Jackson’s organization, which occurred in March, will allow the Elgin group to branch into areas including community and economic development, providing help for ex-offenders and financial counseling to homeowners facing foreclosure.
“We have been dealing with different social issues in the community of Elgin, and I thought it was time to connect the northwest suburbs with the national office,” Blalark said, explaining why his group chose to become a Rainbow/PUSH chapter. “It will give us a forum to let people know what’s going on here.”
Tensions between the community and the Police Department bubbled over in March after police raided a couple’s home looking for a gun supposedly belonging to the couple’s grandson.
The City Council later agreed to pay for damage to the home. An outside consultant hired to look into the raid found it was handled correctly but said the couple’s complaint should have been handled more quickly.
Mayor Ed Schock did not return calls for comment Monday.
Rainbow/PUSH has increased its chapters and projects since the National Rainbow Coalition and People United to Serve Humanity merged in 1996. There has been some emphasis on creating local chapters in Illinois and the Midwest, but until recently the group has had better success opening or beefing up offices in various centers of industry.
The Elgin affiliation appears to be part of a strategy of geographic extension that was announced at the time of the merger but was never fully realized. Rainbow/PUSH has had local affiliates in several states during the years, with varied success, and with several closing after a few years.
Among the first offices Jackson opened soon after the merger were on Wall Street and LaSalle Street, where Jackson’s group worked to influence businesses to adopt hiring practices acceptable to the group, as well as leading boycotts against companies deemed unresponsive to Rainbow/PUSH demands.
In recent years, however, the group appears to be making a more concerted effort to increase the affiliated groups that are geographic chapters, rather than focused on specific issues or industries. Groups have become active in Benton Harbor, Mich., Decatur, Ill., and other Midwest cities, even as a few other affiliates have atrophied.
On Monday, Jackson spoke at the Living Gospel Church of God in Christ, 1515 Dundee Ave., where Blalark is pastor. The Elgin chapter is planning to seek meetings with police and fire officials as well as with the school district to discuss racial inequities, Jackson said.
“We are going to let the people of Elgin share their concerns with us,” he said.
Blalark said his protests in October led to his arrest a month later on insurance fraud charges after his son was arrested on charges of driving with a suspended license and without insurance after a crash.
Blalark was arrested when police said he falsely told officers he was driving his son’s car at the time of the crash. The charges against his son have since been dropped, and Blalark said he plans to participate in a pretrial court avoidance program that could result in the felony charges against him being dropped.
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