Activists meet, collaborate and jointly advance shared priorities

Survivors of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland joined hundreds of people in Chicago on Friday to march against violence, demand changes to gun laws and to remember friends and loved ones.

At a rally before the march, many wore shirts saying “Enough is enough,” a message echoed by some of those who spoke.

Among those at the march, organized by St. Sabina’s Catholic Church, were entertainers Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson and Will.i.am, and former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

“Something is happening across this country,” the Rev. Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina, told the crowd. “Young people are rising up, from the north to the south, to the east, to the west. They are taking action.”

As darkness fell over the South Side of Chicago, Hudson led the crowd in singing “Amazing Grace.”

The march came on the final weekend before classes end for Chicago Public School students, the start of what leaders of the South Side church say is the most dangerous time to be a young person in Chicago.

The rally was the first stop on the countrywide #RoadtoChange tour, inspired in part by the shooting that took 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The national bus tour will focus on registering young people to vote, organizers said, in the hope that they can help elect political leaders who will advocate for gun reform — or encourage young people to seek political office themselves.

“Four million people in this country turn 18 this year,” said Jammal Lemy, 20, who graduated from Stoneman Douglas in 2016 and lost two close friends in the shooting. “We have the opportunity to empower the youth and to push a voter registration drive.”

Youth leaders from Chicago are also part of the #RoadtoChange initiative, among them Roseland resident Trevon Bosley, 20. He is part of the youth-led, violence prevention organization Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere, or BRAVE.

“People do think that no one is fighting for change,” said Bosley. “The reality is there are a lot of people fighting for change. You just don’t always see them on the news.”

As of last Sunday, 1,138 people had been shot this year in Chicago, and 213 killed, according to Chicago Tribune data. Though these totals are smaller than they have been in previous years, they still concern the city’s youngest activists.

“(Some people) have become so

PHOTOS BY CHRIS SWEDA/CHICAGO TRIBUNE Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School stand on stage during a rally against gun violence and march for peace starting at St. Sabina Church in Chicago on Friday.

The march was organized by St. Sabina Catholic Church.