Chicago ministers, Urban Debate League champs meeting with Obama on Monday

Several Chicago ministers and representatives of the Chicago-based Association for Urban Debate Leagues will be at the White House on Monday for meetings in connection with the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

In the morning, Obama meets with religious leaders in the Roosevelt Room “to discuss the march on Washington and how civil rights and equality is closely tied to voting rights and closing the gap on education, unemployment, and access to health care.”

The ministers with a Chicago connection in the group are Bishop John Bryant, Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. Alvin Love, National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and Rev. Stephen Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention of America.

The National Association for Urban Debate Leagues is based in Chicago–332 South Michigan Ave., Suite 500—has a mission of helping minority students from low income families–and on Monday afternoon, Obama meets with the 2013 Urban Debate National Tournament champions in the Oval Office.

From Urbandebate.org “Since 2002, the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues has served as the national leadership organization for the urban debate movement. Today, nineteen urban debate leagues provide competitive policy debate programs to high school and middle school students across the United States, in school districts where 87% of students are minority and 78% are low income.”

The Monday meetings at the White House—and a related reception Tuesday evening– are part of a week of activities to mark the civil rights march, where King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell covered the Saturday march on the National Mall marking the anniversary and her report is HERE.

On Wednesday—the 50th anniversary day– Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter look back—and ahead—when they deliver remarks from the Lincoln Memorial.