In 1969, the Rev. Jacob S. Blake’s voice was so forceful that he didn’t need a microphone to speak to a crowd gathered in Evanston.
Blake, then-pastor at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, was organizing people in support of Gregory C. Coffin, a superintendent of Evanston elementary schools, after the district opted against renewing the contract of the educator who pushed for fast-paced integration, the Chicago Daily News reported at the time.
“Integration is just a beginning,” Blake was quoted as saying. “I see Evanston moving toward what shall be called a blended community.”
The late Blake was at the forefront of the civil rights movement in Evanston. And now more than 40 years after his passing, his grandson, Jacob Blake, is at the center of the modern day civil rights movement known as Black Lives Matter, which, among other things, denounces police brutality.
Blake was shot in the back repeatedly by Kenosha police last weekend. He remained hospitalized Friday.
A video of the shooting spurred daily protests and violent confrontations between Black Lives Matter supporters and a militia group.
“That his grandson is at the apex of that struggle against white supremacy in all of its forms is a reminder that the struggle is not new,” said Bishop Frank M. Reid III, chairperson of the social action commission of the A.M.E. Church. “The struggle has been going on for hundreds of years.”
The Blake family is entrenched in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, producing generations of pastors in churches across the country, Reid said.
The Rev. Jacob S. Blake was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from Indiana University and North Carolina State University, according to his obituary and news stories from the Chicago Daily Defender.
In 1948, the elder Blake ran for state representative in Indiana, according to a Chicago Sun-Times report. He and another candidate who were part of the Progressive Party were jailed in Gary while making speeches over a loudspeaker outside the Carnegie Steel Corp. During this time the Black community in Gary was growing, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago.
He eventually left politics and focused on ministry, said Clarence Robinson, who joined the ministry with Blake in 1958.
“When God called him to preach, he dropped politics as far as running for office and became a full-time, effective pastor,” Robinson said.
Blake led congregations at the St. Luke A.M.E. Church in East Chicago, Indiana, and served as assistant pastor at the First A.M.E. Church in Gary, according to his obituary. He then moved to the St. James A.M.E. Church, located at 9256 S. Lafayette Ave., in Chicago’s Princeton Park neighborhood.
At St. James, Blake grew the congregation “tremendously” and oversaw the construction of a new church structure, Robinson said. While on the Far South Side of Chicago, Blake was also involved in housing activism and was heavily involved in church leadership, Robinson said.
“He was a big guy that didn’t take any foolishness,” Robinson said. “He was upfront. If there was a cause, he was in the middle of it.”
In 1967, Blake became the pastor at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Evanston. The appointment was seen as a crowning achievement because it was a well-respected position and reserved for tenure pastors, said Taurean Webb, the director of the Center for the Church and Black Experience at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.
In Evanston, housing is at the center of racial discrimination for the Black community, Webb said.
“From stuff like taking housing away to moving houses to deeds disappearing,” Webb said.
In 1968, Blake organized a march that drew 3,000 people to Evanston in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, according to the Chicago Daily Defender. In the spirit of King, he created a group known as “NOW” that advocated for fair housing, the newspaper reported.
He led marches through Evanston to put pressure on the local council to pass a stronger fair housing ordinance, according to the Chicago Daily News.
In 1970, Northwestern University sold the church property for the construction of the Ebenezer-Primm Towers, low-income senior housing, for $75,000, though the land was worth $300,000, according to a Chicago Daily News. The sale of the land came after pushback from the Black community because of campus expansion that led to displacement.
In Evanston, Blake also spoke out about the Vietnam War. He joined a group of 39 religious leaders in Evanston who issued a statement critiquing the government and supporting students who were leading protests, according to a Chicago Daily News story from May 9, 1970.
“We commit ourselves to stand in the midst of dissent as advocates of justice and peace,” the statement read. The group urged other clergy to join the protests.
If Blake were alive today, Robinson said he thinks he wold be involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It’s shocking, he fought for a cause and his grandson ends up being a major part of the cause because he was shot,” Robinson said. “It saddens my heart to see where we are now after 40, 50 years.”
Ebenezer A.M.E. in Evanston, the church the elder Blake once led, plans to hold an outdoor service at 2 p.m. Sunday at 1800 Maple Avenue in support of the Blake family and to share information about the Black Lives Matter movement with the community.
Elvia Malagón’s reporting on social justice and income inequality is made possible by a grant from the Chicago Community Trust.
