[[{“type”:”medios de comunicación”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”1379″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”clase”:”media-image”,”height”:”318″,”estilo”:”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”480″}}]]Robert Weissbourd at Bending the Arc: The Robert Howard Annual Symposium. Also pictured are Charles Phillips and Barbara Phillips, Robert Howard’s stepson and wife.On September 7th, nearly five hundred Chicagoans gathered together for “If You Want Peace, Fight for Justice,” an evening discussion with Angela Davis and an extraordinary panel of leaders on gun violence, social justice activism and the work we must do to build a path forward. The forum was organized as a part of Bending the Arc: The Robert Howard Annual Symposium. The following remarks by Robert Weissbourd recognized Bob Howard’s legacy – and that it still matters.Good Evening.We are all gathered tonight – and, in fact, we all enjoy many of the rights we enjoy – because of Robert C. Howard. If you dared to attend an event precisely like this one thirty years ago, you would have ended up with a dossier in the infamous Red Squad files. As if intimidation was not enough, the Red Squad also planted undercover provocateurs in community and policy organizations, provoking disruption and violence, including at the 1968 Democratic convention. It was Bob and his colleagues who took on the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Army, the FBI and the CIA to successfully prohibit this political spying and harassment.If you were an airline stewardess in the 1970s, and got married, pregnant or gained weight – you were fired. It was Bob who took the airlines to the Supreme Court to establish these fundamental rights of women.When Renault Robinson and Howard Saffold started the Afro-American Patrolmen’s League to combat racism and police brutality in the Chicago police force – and for his troubles, Renault was reassigned to foot patrol of the alley behind police headquarters – it was Bob who joined them in organizing a citywide coalition and filing a class action on behalf of police brutality victims. As a result, we now have the Office of Professional Standards; and Blacks went from being 10% of new hires in 1973 a 40% in 1975.When a plurality of progressives took over the Chicago school board, shortly after the first Mayor Daley died, it was Bob that the Board hired to design and negotiate its first desegregation plan, including promises of federal funding. Then Reagan was elected, and tried to eliminate the Department of Education and all support for desegregation. Bob led years of litigation – including two Supreme Court victories – to hold the executive branch accountable, securing unprecedented financial support for the Chicago schools.Whether representing Harold Washington in his first campaign for Mayor, drafting a model ethics ordinance for the City and chairing its Board of Ethics, helping reform the Chicago Housing Authority, winning major class actions to remedy housing and employment discrimination, or preventing segregation of Rockford schools, Bob was always passionate, fierce and effective about justice.Yet – while bringing remarkable intelligence and strength of personality, Bob was also unassuming, witty and wise. It was always about the work, not about the person. He made the work engaging, spirited, collective and creative. Bob is still an inspiration: he regularly showed us that it IS possible to change the world – and that doing so can be the most profoundly enjoyable endeavor. Bob was a mentor to scores of young attorneys and activists – including me. His legacy is not just in the many ground-breaking cases he won, but in the movements and the people he helped nurture.We continue his legacy with this symposium. As Martin Luther King Jr said: “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice.” Bob truly was one of those people bending the arc towards justice.While it is useful to remember how far we have come — and that one person can make so much difference — Bob would not have us looking backward, or spending more time on him. I can hear Bob pointing out that the United States has only 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of its prisoners. I can almost see the wheels turning as he thinks about ways to address gun violence and incarceration. Bob would have wanted to understand the dysfunction and injustice that we’re now going to explore – and he would have been busy figuring out what to do about it.So, with profound thanks to Bob Howard – and to all of you who carry on the work – let us learn together tonight, and let us go out and make a difference.Thank you.Robert Weissbourd was a founder of Crossroads Fund, and was also a founding committee member of Bending the Arc: The Robert Howard Annual Symposium. He is currently the President of RW Ventures.
