July 10, 1966. Martin Luther King leads a rally of 45,000 people at Chicago’s Soldier Field, in temperatures that hit 98 degrees. The rally is an outgrowth of a collaboration between the SCLC and the local Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, who had invited Dr. King’s organization to Chicago. The SCLC plans to conduct a program that addresses the needs of northern, urban blacks, especially housing, and Dr. King has identified Chicago’s slums as a “prototype” of the problem.

LBJ is also aware of the need for better housing: he spoke about it before Congress on April 28 in his proposal for further legislation to strengthen civil rights.  Meanwhile, however, the President is also receiving information from Mayor Daley that the rally was, “Fifty percent Johnson: Johnson the killer, Johnson the destroyer of human life, Johnson the villain in Vietnam…” Listen to that conversation here. 

Image from the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.