Where Dr. King Organized
When Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Chicago in the 1960s, he was not simply passing through. He was engaging a city that laid bare the intersecting crises of racism, poverty, housing injustice, and economic exclusion: conditions that would profoundly shape the final years of his ministry and the vision of the Poor People’s Campaign.
Community Renewal Society (CRS) member congregation Kenwood United Church of Christ (UCC) stands as one of the places where that history unfolded.
Kenwood’s documented relationship with Dr. King is most clearly tied to his visit on February 3, 1966, when he attended an evening rally at Kenwood UCC in support of the ad-hoc Unity Organization of Kenwood. Convened by the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), led by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., alongside The Woodlawn Organization and organizer Al Raby, the rally was part of a broader effort to confront inequities facing Black Chicagoans, particularly around education, economic access, and collective welfare.
For Dr. King, Chicago represented a stark and urgent reality. Often described as one of the most segregated cities in the country, the city’s South and West Side communities bore the weight of systemic disinvestment, housing discrimination, underfunded public schools, and the forced concentration of Black residents into overcrowded ghettos. These conditions were posed as incidental, but Dr. King knew better; they were structural. Chicago became, in many ways, a living case study of the very forces Dr. King would later name as the “triple evils” of racism, poverty, and militarism.
Faith communities like Kenwood were essential to this work, not simply as places of worship, but as engines of collective action. Long before Dr. King’s 1966 visit, Kenwood’s clergy had already begun weaving together faith, community, and justice. Under the leadership of Rev. George Nishimoto (1949–1961) and Rev. Samuel Gandy (1961–1964), the congregation embraced partnerships with organizations like KAM Isaiah Israel Synagogue and the University of Chicago chapter of CORE. This groundwork positioned Kenwood as an early meeting site for KOCO, with organizing gatherings held in both the fellowship hall and sanctuary.
Churches like Kenwood understood, and continue to understand, that sacred spaces are also civic spaces, where political education, movement strategy, and moral imagination can take root.
That understanding aligns deeply with Dr. King’s vision of faith in action. Since formally joining the United Church of Christ in 1957, Kenwood has held an unapologetic theological commitment to justice, community, and public witness. These commitments mirrored the aims of the Poor People’s Campaign and Dr. King’s evolving ministry in Chicago.
Today, that partnership with Dr. King’s legacy continues beyond commemoration. It lives in the daily work of the Kenwood UCC Soup Kitchen and the Norma Jean Sanders Free Clinic. It is sustained through active relationships with CRS, KOCO, Live Free Illinois, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and other community-based organizations. And it is carried forward through an intentional effort to reclaim Kenwood’s historic role as a convening space for political education, youth enrichment, and community gathering.
For those who enter Kenwood today, especially for a training or gathering rooted in Dr. King’s legacy, the hope is simple and profound: that they feel welcomed and know they belong. Since its founding in 1885, Kenwood has changed many times: once predominantly white, then a majority Japanese American congregation for 12 years, and since 1961, an unapologetically Black church. Yet its mission has remained constant: to love God, serve the community, and unite people across ethnicity, sexual orientation, and perspective.
In this present moment marked by renewed threats of authoritarianism, economic precarity, racial injustice, and militarism, the echoes of Dr. King’s Chicago struggle are unmistakable. While circumstances and tools have evolved, the moral urgency remains. Gentrification, housing inequities, and food insecurity continue to shape the lived realities of many Chicagoans.
That is why Kenwood remains vital.
As both a monument to the past and a living space where people gather, organize, and learn. Where Dr. King’s legacy is not only remembered but practiced.
Communications Coordinator