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Two names Lu and Jorja Palmer almost went unmentioned at the kick-off press conference of the 30th Year Commemoration of Harold Washington as Chicago's first Black Mayor

Two names that almost went unmentioned at all during the recent press conference kicking off the 30th Year Commemoration of the April, 1983 election of Chicago's 1st Black Mayor Harold Washington were the names of Lu and Jorja Palmer!! I want to thank the Rev. Al Sampson who I told as Rev. Slim Coleman was about to give the closing prayer Rev. Sampson stopped Coleman and told him my issue and you should have heard the emotional response from the audience when Rev Coleman mentioned the names of Lu and Jorja Palmer!! I was a youth member member of Lu Palmer's CBUC organization and watched up close the beating that he took from his corporate sponsors and from many of our own people when HE started this whole campaign on his WVON and CBUC that started in 1982 that "We Shall See In '83". There would have been NO OTHER "firsts" leading up to the election of Harold Washington had it not started first with the "We Shall See In '83" campaign that started the entire community Mayoral candidate selection process.

Part of this challenge to maintain the legacy of Lu and Jorja Palmer falls under the leadership of Eddie Read who on the one hand has done a tremendous job in transforming the headquarters of Lu and Jorja Palmer at 330 East 37th Street (Lu Palmer Place) into The United Services Of Chicago organization, Read must face the additional challenge of preserving the historic work of Lu and Jorja Palmer into the reviving of the regular civic education work of future generations from the CBUC (Chicago Black United Communities) and BIPO (Black Independent Political Organization). There have been names of those like myself, Leo Webster, Jim Fields and maybe others who thought they were the "chosen" ones to best carry the legacy for future generations of Lu Palmer. I know I felt this way when Lu Palmer made office space available next door to his CBUC/BIPO offices at 334 East 37th Street for many of the young leaders of CBUC/BIPO to organize our intergenerational work through our Black Student organizations, our Young Black Leadership Roundtables, or our Black Leadership Development Institute (BLDI) but it became clear that it was the leadership of Eddie Read who would be at the core of carrying the name and organizational legacy of Lu Palmer and Jorja Palmer.

Now this is no secret that I have shared my views of the future of CBUC and BIPO and that part of of the Lu and Jorja Palmer legacy. But while there is a major organizational room in the 37th Street offices that feature prominent pictures of Lu and Jorja Palmer, that in no way preserves the legacy in the way I and others may see that down not include reestablishing the regular civic education meetings of CBUC and BIPO.

Somewhere during this 30th year commemoration of the historic election of the first elected Black Mayor of Chicago and the  study and analysis of all the grassroots components that there MUST be some forum held at those 37th Street offices to engage a new generation of grassroots leadership on the life and legacies of Lu and Jorja Palmer that came from those 37th Street offices where the street now is also honorarily named for Lu Palmer. But no one reading this who know could dare argue that there is NO WAY to examine the legacy of Harold Washington without talking about the roles that were played in public and private by Lu and Jorja Palmer and I could not just sit through the entire opening press conference the other day without doing what I had to do in those final minutes of the press conference that would not have been complete without mentioning the names of Lu and Jorja Palmer and work to include them in the ongoing commemoration of the activities of the 30 year anniversary of the election of Harold Washington as Chicago's first Black Mayor.