Josie Childs Opposes Boycott of Mayor’s King Breakfast
Rev. Bernard Jakes ‘hurt’ over FB jabbing
By Chinta Strausberg
Josie L. Childs, founder and president of the Harold Washington Legacy Committee, late Wednesday said she opposes the boycott of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Dr. King breakfast because it destroys Mayor Harold Washington’s legacy.
Childs, who is scheduled to be on WVON’s Matt McGill show today at 7:30 a.m., was referring to a number of African American ministers including Bishop James Dukes, Liberation Christian Center Church and Pastor Ira Acree, Greater St. John Bible Church, who called for a boycott of the mayor’s annual Dr. King breakfast saying Emanuel betrayed them by seeking their support before the election while fighting against the release of the Laquan McDonald tape.
But those are social issues Childs said should not interfere with Dr. King’s breakfast. “I am against the boycott because why would you destroy Harold’s legacy. He started this breakfast. Mayor Washington especially wanted it. Dr. King moved here on the West Side.
“I want to be clear,” she said. “I support the protesters. That is their right to protest. They can scream and yell, but to boycott the breakfast is unacceptable because this breakfast is a part of Mayor Washington’s legacy. He started it.”
Childs said Washington turned over the annual King breakfast to the city’s Special Events department and that back then the celebration was a full day of events. “For what ever reason, Mayor Washington decided to go just with the breakfast.”
And, to the ministers who are boycotting the breakfast, Childs said, “They don’t know their history and to say Dr. King would not be caught in the same room with Mayor Emanuel is absurd because they don’t know what Dr. King would have done.
“We wouldn’t have had our Civil Rights or Voting Rights Act if Dr. King would not have gone into the room with President Lyndon Johnson,” Childs said.
“This is not Rahm Emanuel’s breakfast. They are making it his breakfast. This is the 31st year of this event that has been held by four mayors,” said Childs. “Emanuel did not create this breakfast. The breakfast does not belong to him. It is the city of Chicago’s breakfast and who ever is the mayor is the host.”
Disturbed by the verbal warfare going on around the King breakfast, Rev. L. Bernard Jakes, pastor of the West Point Missionary Baptist Church, said he is not against the boycott because he understands “the impetus behind it. The participators have a legitimate concern.”
However, on this Friday Jakes said “we should honor Dr. King’s legacy in the community as Father Mike (Pfleger) and Saint Sabina are doing,” he said referring to Pfleger’s scheduled 7 p.m. Peace Walk. “A weekend of service should be our focus,” Jakes stated.
He added, “I’m really grieved that the legacy of Dr. King has been reduced to a series of breakfast. I’m ashamed of what this has become…all in the name of Dr. King. Saying “Boycott or don’t…mayor-sponsored or City-sponsored…sellout or activist….” Rev. Jakes said the protesters “don’t know what Dr. King would have done.”
He is disturbed over the “clergy jabbing at each other via Facebook while the same media who vilifies us is all of a sudden interested in us. This for me is what Dr. King’s weekend has been reduced to in Chicago in 2016, and it’s hurtful.”
Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.
