Visual Narratives
Keith is a great archivist, so he pulled out some photos that capture our organizing and the community and workplace leaders we got to know from across the years. Each picture tells a story.
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Forty years of action, racial, social, economic, and political change, community and union building–and fun. We won some, lost some, and learned a lot.
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March 2005
SEIU 880 homecare, childcare members on the steps of the state Capitol, Springfield, demand their union, living wages, healthcare, and more!
Image by David Kamba
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June 1989
In one of their first coordinated statewide lobby days, private and public homecare workers from across Illinois marched on the state Capitol demanding living wages, health care, union recognition, and an end to unionbusting.
Image by SEIU880
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May 6, 2004
Chicago ACORN and Grassroots Collaborative begin their Big Box Living Wage campaign outside of City Council chambers.
Image by The New York Times
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July 26, 2006
Chicago ACORN members and allies outside the city council demanding a Big Box Living Wage for Walmart and other retailers.
Image by The New York Times
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2009
Action Now members join a Grassroots Collaborative hunger strike for a fair budget at the state Capitol. Marie Gasaway, Brenda Hobson, Ellyson Carter, and Mahaley Somerville are pictured with other Allie’s.
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November 2012
Fast food workers from Chicago’s Magnificent Mile perform their original rap for the crowd at St James Cathedral before beginning the first Fight for 15 action in the nation.
Image by Christina Rivero
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2010
Englewood Action Now leader Charles Brown leads action for rehab of foreclosed homes.
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July 27, 1985
SEIU880 homecare workers from Staffbuilders services, Inc, led by Mary Jones (3rd L), Essie Stinson (center), Vernell Morris (3rd R), Helen Miller (R), picket their boss’s suburban home: demand union recognition, stop union-busting! He resigned shortly after.
Image by Keith Kelleher/880
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October 26, 1998
The Black Women Who Built 880 from 7 members in 1983 to over 70,000 by 2008: (Ltr) Helen Miller, Vice President; Girlene Walker, Treasurer; Vera Hopkins, Recording Secretary; Bessie Cannon, President; Lula Bronson, Secretary; Odessa White, Board member.
Image by Keith Kelleher/880
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2008
Candidate for President Barack Obama with Acorn Board members prior to 2008 election.
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June 1998
SEIU880 kids hold the 880 banner while listening to a young, newly-elected state senator Barack Obama speak to hundreds of SEIU Local 880 homecare and childcare workers at the SEIU880 lobby day on the steps of the state Capitol in Springfield.
880 was the first union to support Obama for public office, providing much-needed field and labor support in his first campaign for state senate and afterward.
Image by David Kamba
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September 13, 2006
Chicago ACORN, SEIU Local 880, and the Grassroots Collaborative fighting for the Big Box Living Wage at Chicago’s City Hall.
Image by The New York Times
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Spring 1998
SEIU880 members, led by President Bessie Cannon (front, right with Fair Share sign), from across Illinois demand their Fair Share and a Raise in the state minimum wage in Springfield, Illinois.
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March 2017
Hundreds of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas (HCIIMK) and Action Now members and allies rally at Trump Tower in Chicago to save Obamacare.
SEIU HCIIMK United 880 members and all hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare workers in those states to form the 90,000+ strong union - the largest local union in Chicago, Illinois, and the Midwest.
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2002
ACORN convention March in Chicago.
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March 2005
SEIU880 homecare and childcare providers March to the Illinois Capitol demanding health insurance, living wages, union recognition!
Image by David Kamba
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November 2012
Fight for 15 March, Chicago.
Image by Christina Rivero
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June 1996
SEIU LOCAL 880 members from across the state of Illinois marched to the Capitol in Springfield, Illinois demanding a living wage.
Image by David Kamba
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September 2018
Two OG’s from Westside ACORN and Action Now at Keith's retirement party: Bea Jackson and Marie Gasaway.
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1992
Illinois ACORN marches through the HQ lobby of Citibank, in New York, during the national ACORN convention.
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1990
ACORN member Irma Dixon leads house squatting action at what will become her new home in West Englewood.
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1997
Chicago ACORN and Local 880 leader Lillie Petty at a city hall rally for the Chicago Jobs and Living Wage ordinance, which passed the following year.
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1998
Madeline at a Chicago Jobs and Living Wage campaign meeting.
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1990
Madeline was arrested at the Resolution Trust Corporation offices when ACORN fought for and won an Affordable Housing program, using the foreclosed homes resulting from the Savings and Loan crisis.
Image by Daily Herald
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July 1997
Juancho Donahue (Chicago Coalition for the Homeless), Madeline, and Mike Stewart (Local 880), were arrested at city hall when Mayor Daley locked them and 300 others out of city council chambers during a vote to table the Living Wage ordinance.
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August 1985
Keith and Madeline with daughter Aileen at 18 months at ACORN regional leadership school in Des Moines, Iowa.
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May 18, 2016
SEIU HCIIMK President, Keith Kelleher, welcomes SEIU HCIIMK members (lower right) to march and rally of over 10,000 union members and allies at the Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. HCIIMK was a leader in the grassroots fightback against Rauner’s destructive anti-community and anti-labor policies throughout his four-year reign (2015-2019). Rauner was defeated two years later, in part, because of this grassroots campaign.
Image by CFL
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EVERYBODY HAS A STORY
We’re laying down some words in public that lift up our own stories and those of the wonderful grassroots people we had the pleasure to work with.