LOGAN SQUARE — A Logan Square activist and rapper has been awarded a top honor for his work with social justice in Chicago.
Chicago native Richard “Epic” Wallace was recently presented with Roosevelt University’s Matthew Freeman Social Justice Award — an accomplishment that came as a surprise when he began receiving congratulatory messages.
That’s because Wallace was mourning the death of his father in March, shortly before the award was announced. The 33-year-old was taking a break from his studies when the first message came in for the award — an honor Wallace said would have made his father proud.
“It says a lot for me and the community that I come from and the people that I work with,” he said. “It means a lot to me … that you can actually be awarded for participating in bettering the lives of others.”
Wallace, a labor activist with Chicago Workers Collective and founder of the Roosevelt chapter of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, comes from a legacy of social justice as the stepson of deceased Black Panther and community activist Mike Smith. He said the Freeman award reflects a desire to help that has been with him since childhood.
“I was a knucklehead and a street kid — I think people counted me, and other guys like me, out. But I took a chance on going back to school,” he said. “I wanted to be able to discuss the woes of my community with a wider audience.”
Wallace began rapping about those same issues as one-third of the defunct hip-hop group BBU, which toured Chicago venues and festivals like Lollapalooza in the late-2000s.
He released his first solo album, #OPRAH late last year and, last fall, marched with more than 100 students and faculty members from Roosevelt for a rally at Daley Plaza in Chicago where he spoke during a national day of protest against mistreatment of black Americans, most notably Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York; and Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
Wallace was nominated for the Matthew Freeman Social Justice Award by Roosevelt Sociology Professor Leon Bailey.
“I think Richard Wallace is one of the brightest and best embodiments of the University’s social justice mission,” said Bailey, who lauded Wallace for rallying students both inside and outside of class.
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