By Chinta Strausberg, Chicago Crusader
Heal and Rebuild is the theme for the 46th annual Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund international convention which runs July 12-15 at the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave.
Rev. Jesse Jackson laid out his agenda for the upcoming convention during a media luncheon at PUSH headquarters, 930 E. 50th Street.
On Thursday, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez will be the keynote speaker at the Labor Breakfast. During the Thursday afternoon Ministers’ Luncheon Jackson will honor Rabbi Israel Dresner, who 53-years ago organized 15 rabbis and joined Blacks protesting segregation in motels in St. Augustine, Florida. They were targets of bricks and bottles and were jailed.
Friday, Senator Elizabeth Warren will keynote the Women’s International Luncheon with emcees, ABC 7’s Cheryl A. Burton, and former NBC 5 news anchor Renee Ferguson.
WTTW’s Brandis Friedman will moderate a gubernatorial forum on Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Also on Friday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will speak, along with Her Excellency Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, former chairwoman of the African Union, and the Honorable Fatoumata Jallow Tambajang, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gambia.
The themes of the workshops, flashbacks of Jackson’s platforms during his presidential runs in 1984 and 1988, and are even more relevant today.
The convention will include an international session dubbed “Global and Africa Diaspora Investment” moderated by Dr. Ewa Ewa, financial officer for the state of Illinois.
Additional sessions and workshops will discuss the state of minority businesses and entrepreneurship, and diversity in corporate America. Education funding and U.S. foreign policy in the world of President Donald Trump are among workshop topics.
The convention closes Saturday with a family reunion “love fest” complete with food and entertainment. Convention planners noted that the family reunion theme is intentional, designed to allow attendees to share the warmth of friendships old and new.
