Freedom Square: Making Black Lives Matter

In Chicago, the #LetUsBreathe Collective has transformed a lot adjacent to the Homan Square facility, exposed as a Chicago Police Department “black site” by The Guardian last year, into a beautiful organizing space aptly called Freedom Square. While the city continues to divest social resources from our communities, this site of torture has become a site of freedom and visionary love in a neighborhood that is over-policed and over-incarcerated. According to Million Dollar Blocks, North Lawndale committed nearly $241 million to incarceration in 2005-2009.

Following the Black Lives Matter march and civil disobedience at CPD’s Homan Square in Lawndale July 20, activists set up camp to continue the momentum and imagine a world without police by creating a collective space that embraces principles of love, justice, and solidarity. Volunteers, who staff the encampment around the clock, have organized a pantry, outdoor kitchen, art-making and learning stations, a library, play areas, and sleeping quarters. To serve the community, Freedom Square, provides free food, free books, and free political education. But in addition to these offerings, Freedom Square is also making concrete political demands that directly challenge police violence. Specifically, activists are calling for the CPD to provide the family of Pierre Loury, the young teenager who was killed by police, with the official police report. They are also demanding that the City Council’s Public Safety Committee recall the proposed Blue Lives Matter ordinance that would expand protections for police and make protesting a hate crime.