The newly formed group C.U.R.R.E.(Community United for Rights, Respect, & Equality) held a community caravan and rally on Saturday. The caravan, made up of about 30-35 vehicles, took formation at Taylor Park around 3:30. At approximately 4:15 the caravan took off in two separate fleets to drive though Freeport in different directions. Both lines of vehicles honking their horns, obeying traffic signals, and bringing homeowners and renters to their windows and doors to see what the commotion might me.
The caravan I was following snaked through the neighborhood behind Taylor Park, into downtown via Adams Street to the north, proceeded on Galena Avenue to the west, and snaking through the neighborhood of both Waddell and Hunt Avenues. We then proceeded all the way back east on Galena Avenue eventually pulling back into Taylor Park.
Once both caravans had returned there was a community rally with several speakers and guided by President of C.U.R.R.E. Kelvin McIlwain. Kicking off the rally was Vici Otte(R-Freeport) the County Clerk who’s very busy taking care of the preparation for Stephenson County to vote in November. Otte gave an update on the status of the ballots, election judge training, and other election deadlines. Otte was followed by Connie Taylor providing an update on the census. Taylor noted that Illinois is in danger of losing 2 seats in the House of Representatives if current trends continue. All U.S. Citizens have until September 30th to complete the census which impacts how money is directed by Congress. You can complete the census at census.gov.
Ryan Shirley kicked off the next portion discussing the health of our society urging those in attendance to participate throughout his speech. Pastor Antwon Fuenches of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church immediately followed Shirley with an at times stirring plea to get out and vote spending much of his speech making sure those in attendance know his feelings on Senator Mitch McConnell(R-Kentucky) and his seeming hypocritical stance on appointing and confirming a Supreme Court vacancy during an election year.
Next up was local firebrand and legend LaFrancine Baker. Baker was in usual form with a moving and direct speech about Black Lives Matter, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and more. She stressed the shared experience of racism in the black community by being required to have “the talk” with young black men and women before they drive, shop, and play. Ms. Baker also touched on the recent stories coming out of our immigration detention centers of hispanic women being forced to have hysterectomies, young hispanic children being separated from their families, and kept in cages.
Jim Ryan was last in the lineup but he certainly didn’t let it end on a low note. The Director of the Freeport Boys and Girls Club gave an emotional and resounding speech that echoed through the east side neighborhood. Ending with “It’s morning time!” and “Justice Forever” in a booming speech that ended the rally and sent everyone back to their cars motivated to get out the vote.
When asked to provide a description of C.U.R.R.E., Mr. McIlwain responded to my Facebook message with the following, “Our mission is to promote and build strong communities; ensuring respect and fairness for all. We want to see change in our community and understand this means getting involved with issues from national down to the local level.” He continued that there will be more formal information coming in the next couple weeks about goals and further information about C.U.R.R.E. as an organization.
The League of Women Voters was also on hand to register voters as well as update registrations.
Over the next few weeks we will make some of the speeches available on our YouTube channel.
Carl Utt is a newly minted citizen journalist and one of the founders of The Voice of Freeport and Progressive Vision Media LLC
Images courtesy of Jody Coss of Hillside Studios
