EDGEWATER — On Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in January 1963, he gave a speech at the Edgewater Beach Hotel to honor 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation.
King was in town to head the National Conference on Religion and Race, hailed as "the most significant and historic [convention] ever held for attacking racial injustice" at the time by Chicago's American.
Now the residents group Edgewater Beachwalk is asking King's son, Martin Luther King III, to join them as they celebrate what would have been the former hotel's centennial.
"Your father’s speech seems to have been neglected in the history books, and the Edgewater community is doing its best to rectify the situation," Morry Matson, president of the group and member of the Edgewater Historical Society, wrote to King III.
Edgewater Beachwalk has been leading a push for improvements to the community's lakefront bike baths, sidewalks and beaches for several years — including where the former hotel once stood, as well as its sister building to the north.
In Matson's letter to King, he said a few "restrictionists" who were concerned about outsiders coming into the neighborhood had been opposed to the group's lakefront plans:
"Edgewater Beachwalk is campaigning for a public promenade and bike path along Edgewater’s lakefront. The old hotel once had a promenade that became part of the community’s identity which we wish to emulate again. Unfortunately there is a minority group of voters in our ward whom I refer to as Restrictionists. These are voters who fear that the construction of such a project will invite residents from Chicago’s Southside to gain access to our lovely lakefront, thus creating a spike in crime, drugs and prostitution. Edgewater is a progressive and welcoming community that rejects this claim."
Matson said he also invited the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other religious and racial leaders to join the group as they celebrate the hotel, as well as acknowledge inequalities that minority groups still endure today.
Matson said the June 3 march was not a politically-charged demonstration or rally, but "a public community celebration that will show full support for the new lakefront project and bring to light civil rights issues."
King's speech, and the conference itself, was indeed a significant highlight event that would affect future connections in the civil rights movement.
After the conference's opening remarks from then-President John F. Kennedy, King met Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel for the first time (who would later go on to march with King at Selma), and made strong bonds between racial and religious leaders of different faiths from across the country.
King III could not be reached for comment.
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