Richard Mertens wrote an amazing piece about my Chicago History Book Club mate, Josh Hoyt. Josh has been fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised, both here in Chicago but also in Latin America, for his entire adult life. Most recently, he has been working on improving immigrant rights through community organizing. His main goal has been to unite the disparate groups across Chicago and Illinois so that they may speak to politicians & the electorate with one larger voice.
“We can’t have a democracy where 11 million people are frozen in third-class status and with their families vulnerable to being deported any moment,” he says. “We benefit from their work. They clean our floors, serve our tables, and yet we won’t invite them to the table of our democracy. The only way immigrants have become full members of our democracy is to fight to get to the table.” (emphasis mine)
Read the rest in University of Chicago Magazine
Illustration by Mark Bender
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