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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF REVEREND WALTER "SLIM" COLEMAN
WHEREAS, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman lived a beautiful life filled with friends and family. Unfortunately, he lost his life on April 16, 2024; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman's activist and organizing work in Chicago dates back to the Civil Rights and antiwar movements of the 1960's; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman was raised in Lubbock, Texas before entering Harvard University on a scholarship. He left Harvard a month before graduation to begin his work in activism but returned to finish his education there almost 20 years later; and
WHEREAS, during the 1960s, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to work at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee under the leadership of James Forman. This organization consisted mainly of Black college students who practiced peaceful, direct-action protests that ultimately led to civil rights victories; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman and Kathy Archibald - two white Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee members - moved to Chicago in 1966 and joined the activist organization Students for a Democratic Society; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman and Kathy Archibald worked together to establish the People's Information Center in Lincoln Park. This center collaborated with the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords activist group, led by the well-known activist Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez; and
WHEREAS, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman collaborated with Fred Hampton to establish the Rainbow Coalition in Chicago. The Coalition was a combination of the Illinois Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, and the Young Patriots Organization. The Young Patriots Organization was a leftist organization primarily comprised of white migrants from Appalachia and was based in Uptown; and
WHEREAS, as a community organizer in the Uptown neighborhood in the 1970's, Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman organized the Internat...
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