Low on inspiration? Open your wallet. “Let me just first thank each and every one of the residents that are here today—I’d like to really acknowledge them,” said Ninth Ward alderman Anthony Beale, speaking in the chamber of Chicago’s City Council on Thursday, June 24. “It’s residents like this who really give me the energy and drive to fight on their behalf.”
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But it’s possible not everyone felt as strongly about the project as their T-shirts did. Around 7:30 that morning, about a hundred Walmart supporters had filed onto two yellow school buses in front of the 63rd and Harper headquarters of the Woodlawn Organization (TWO). A south-side fixture, this social services organization is run, at least nominally, by president Georgette Greenlee-Finney, but it’s heavily influenced by her husband, Leon Finney Jr., the City Hall insider who became TWO’s executive director in 1969. He no longer holds a formal office at TWO, but he remains chief executive officer of its sister organization, the Woodlawn Community Development Corporation, which manages projects for the Chicago Housing Authority and develops real estate throughout the south side.
Aaron Garel, a 30-year-old Woodlawn native, was one of these protesters. Garel, known on the street as “Little” and “Little Man,” says he used to be a drug dealer and a member of the Black Stones, a gang with ties to the old Blackstone Rangers. Three prior convictions on drugs and weapons charges make it hard for him to find work. When a friend, a TWO organizer, called him two weeks before the June 24 committee meeting and asked if he wanted to go downtown and make some money, he jumped at the chance. Besides, he believed in the cause: the south side did need more jobs, and if Walmart wanted to open a store, why not?
On Thursday morning, about 100 white shirts gathered on the street in front of TWO. Two buses carried them north on Lake Shore Drive into the Loop, where they rallied with about 250 other Walmart supporters organized by Alderman Beale’s staff. (Beale says none of the supporters he turned out was paid, though Walmart did pick up the tab for Beale’s buses.)
“No, not at all,” Beale said. “You have people who have their own agendas, opportunists who try to insert themselves into any debate.”
