President Obama will designate Chicago's historic Pullman Park district as a national monument, according to reports.
The president will travel to Chicago on Feb. 19 to designate the monument, a White House official told the Chicago Tribune.
The official said Obama is using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 and that the move was part of his effort to protect and promote the nation's diverse history.
The area was built by businessman George Pullman as a factory and company town for his workers who constructed the iconic Pullman railway cars in the late 1800s. It became the birthplace of the country's first African-American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and was the site of a massive strike.
"Pullman workers fought for fair labor conditions in the late 19th century and the Pullman porters helped advance America’s civil rights movement," Lynn McClure, the Midwest senior director for the National Parks Conservation Association told the Washington Post.
The president's visit could also boost his former chief of staff, current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel faces a Democratic primary on Feb. 24 as he seeks reelection.
The mayor along with Illinois lawmakers from both parties pressed Obama to make the historic site a national park.
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4 comments:
Leave it to Obama to contort/distort legislation illegally to honor the place where radical union leaders tried to take over the private business The Pullman Company. The Government had to send in troops to fend off Union thugs that had murdered dozens of workers trying to feed their families.
The Antiquities Act resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Indian ruins and artifacts – collectively termed "antiquities" – on federal lands in the West, such as at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
Nothing to do with him honoring radical Chicago thugs and Union murderers other than those are his type of people!
11:20 bingo. His type of people.
I agree Obama is wrong in what he is doing but don't condem all unions because some and maybe most are out of control and corrupt.Unions have been good for a lot of people even people who aren't union members ask anyone who works on state or federal highways projects they love to get on scale jobs.If it wasn't for the unions the scale would be a hell of a lot lower than it is.By the way I am not a union member.Oh yeah also all those people you see on TV they are all union members.
12:43
So, you admit Unions run up costs to tax payers?
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