Metropolitan Tenants Organization to Present Willie Green With Ralph Scott Award
Willie Green’s life has been all about working on behalf of neighborhood residents and their kids. He will be the 2016 recipient of MTO’s Ralph Scott Award, an award named in memory of the longtime community and environmental activist.
After graduating from Hyde Park High School, Green left Chicago for Boston where he worked as a juvenile counselor in that city’s elementary schools. He returned to Chicago when his mother became ill. Before retiring, he served as Dean of Students at Jensen Scholastic Elementary on the west side mentoring kids, handling discipline issues, and serving as a coach. That kind of multi-tasking carries over to all of his volunteer work, including his work at Evening Star Baptist Church, as well as MTO.
A long-time resident of Lake Vista Apartments, he first came in contact with MTO several years ago when the complaints he lodged with the building manager about security issues and bedbugs went unaddressed. With MTO’s assistance, he organized his neighbors into a tenants association that has fought for, and continues to fight for, the rights of residents.
Since that introduction to MTO, Mr. Green’s been a dedicated presence advocating on behalf of housing rights, including: trips to Springfield, attendance at City hearings, and even camping out overnight at City Hall – in his wheelchair — as part of an action by the Chicago Housing Initiative to call attention to the Keeping The Promise ordinance. He was interviewed on television at that one!
Fifty Years After Freedom Summer
And the Fight Goes On
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Revolution Brewing
2323 North Milwaukee, Chicago
Tickets: $65 each; $50 for Employees of Nonprofits
For information: tdrake@tenants-rights.org
