Chicago Politics

30th Anniversary Celebration of Life for Marion Nzinga Stamps 8.28.26

Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the 30th Anniversary Celebration of Life for Marion Nzinga Stamps.

Transcript

0:53 Good morning. Good morning. Y'all can do better than that. Good morning. We black people out here. Good morning. All right. We are here to celebrate and commemorate the 30th anniversary of the late Marion and Zynga Stamps. And on behalf of Commissioner Tara Stamps, her sister Justice Stamps, Gwan Stamps, and Carla Stamps, who could not be here because she had to go back and then Tracy my brain the heat is messing with my brain y'all

1:26 the heat is messing with my brain but we really want to thank you for coming out we appreciate you guys being so agile this morning and working with us but we want to celebrate a life well lived as so many people know it was right here on these grounds that Miss Stamps the original Miss Stamps made so much impact for our community and unfortunately we are still facing the same consequences of the battle, but we are keeping hope alive, and we are so glad that you could come out, and so I service the Chief of Staff for Commissioner Taurus Stamps, Khadijah Warfield,

1:58 as y'all know her, where's Khadijah at? Khadijah is our Director of Constituent Services, and we have been here, and we're so glad you're here, we're not going to prolong it, but we are going to start with Lift Every Voice and Sing, so you can stay there in your seat, stand up, but please just take this moment of song to celebrate her life we got good order in here with like a good

4:09 baptist church so with that being said we will now introduce the first district cook county commissioner tara stamps who will take us through the program let's welcome her up all things decent and in order have a seat you all um it is my esteemed honor blessing and privilege just to be the daughter of the late Marion Stamps, just to have footsteps that she left for not only me

4:40 to walk in, but my sister and now our children. I won't go into all of this right now. But I would not be possible, we would not be possible if we were not raised in the concept of being village raised children. And so for my big mamas, my aunties, my SOS aunties, please stand.

5:15 I thank you all, I love you all, and I say, Brother Khalid London, Brother Gerald Frazier, stand. My Uncle Richard is on his way somewhere, and I get love on him when he gets here. Brenda Shedd, Stan. We were raised by a village of men and women that did not share an iota of DNA with us.

5:49 But they are my mama's best friends. They are her sisters in the struggle for liberation for our people. And they have been there since the beginning of our beginning in this space. and I owe them to share this honor and all honors that I'm gifted to have in my life. And now, because of the work that I've been able and been blessed to do, I have my own village, Brother Carl West, Nali A.

6:21 I don't have none of my sorrows here on this good morning, my sorrows justice stamps who kind of do double duty. But listen, this is a sacred moment. I don't want to elongate it because there's so much that needs to happen. But a lot of this is also due, in fact, to my planning and people who love me and love my mother. So without any further ado, Walter Burnett, alderman, former alderman, then his namesake of the 27th Ward and also deputy mayor of the city of Chicago.

6:54 Praise the Lord, everyone. First, give an honor to the elders that are here. And thank you all for all of the things that you have opened up for us to be able to be where we are today. To the mayor, to the alderman, to the commissioner, to the family, and to all of the other elected officials that may be here today, it gives me a great honor and pleasure to be here to celebrate Marion Stamps.

7:24 It gives me another honor to know that I was part of getting this street name after her. 27 years ago and you know i think about marrying stamps and i think about what's going on now in society you know how uh mariam made a lot of noise right we family so we can be straight with each other right but she made a lot of noise but she made noise with a purpose right and she made noise

7:55 for the women in the community and the children in the community but she also had a lot of brothers following behind her. And if you think about noise that's being made today in our society, you see that people make noise. You think nothing may come out of it. But I'm going to tell you, the noise that Merriam made, a lot of policies was changed. A lot of things was put forth to help people in our community. Whether it was with CHA, whether it was with the police, regardless

8:31 of what it was that affected our neighborhood. She made noise, and that noise touched people's consciousness and made them to make some differences in our community and in regards to the people in our neighborhood. So we thank God for marrying Stamps. A lot of folks was able to get affordable housing. A lot of folks was able to stay in the community. So she has benefited our neighborhood in a big way. And then she left a legacy. They say an apple don't fall too far from the trees. Look at the legacy that she left. Her daughter, you got justice

9:06 stamped. You all, some people don't know, but justice was an investment banker. She could be richer than she is right now if she wanted to be. But she chose to come back to the neighborhood and mentor and mold our young people in the neighborhood and get them something constructed to do to keep them out of trouble. Then you also have the same thing with Gwana. You know, Gwana. Okay, Ms. Stamps. I can't. She checked me every time I see her. She checked me on everything. She checked me the other day down by City Hall.

9:50 But, uh, Ms. Stamps, Ms. Stamps also have been giving back to the community and doing things for our young people, but also for folks to get jobs and to get training. So, and then now you have Tara Stamps, who not only gave back in public service by being a public school teacher, but now she's a county commissioner and now she's helping people all over the county. And she's injecting, making noise like a mother and injecting her voice to work on people's consciousness.

10:30 So Miriam's legacy, Miriam might not be with us here right now, but her legacy live on. God bless. If we could just give a little love offering clap to my Uncle Richard. My G over there, she ain't going to say nothing. She in the background like Juana. Um, and, and I'm sure I got some more CTU family out here that I love so much. That's in this fight with me lockstep and have my back and everything I do, whether

11:03 it has to do with County or community, um, like this. And then I saw all of my sister, all them little sisters back there. Gone, gone. The brigade started showing up. The brigade started showing up and we'll talk about that later, but those are the sisters that my mother raised up. she raised them and their children so it's not just my legacy it's our shared legacy i saw scotty over there maurice over there this is not just my legacy craig i know i'm naming names

11:36 this been holding this community down for over 40 years so this is not just merc is over there trying to revive our church and have an art certified people it's not just my legacy it's all of our legacies. And when you sow a seed, you don't know where that harvest is going to come from. My mama sowed seeds and everybody out here, you see doing something. My mother sowed that seed in them. And we are here to bear witness to the harvest. And Walter sowed a seed in his son.

12:10 And we, we raised them up at, at cycle before there was even a STEM programming. We was doing of STEM programming, were we not? We was learning languages and math and science and manufacturing and building and dance before Homer Bryant had Hip Lay. He had the girls from Cabrini Green in ballet slippers and boys. Before Hip Lay even became a thing, we brought that sauce to

12:41 Homer Bryant. And now the alder of the 27th Ward was a part of that legacy too. Without any further ado, Red. Burnett. Thank you so much. It's a blessing to be here today. And it's a weird feeling to say that I learned how to be a nerd in Cabrini Green. But it's true. The legacy of the Stamps family is rooted in this community. As a kid, I was taught by pretty much everyone in this family about things that I had no idea of living in the inner city.

13:16 It grew my love for geology and rocks to understanding what industrial is and eventually driving my passion for business. But it rooted me in community. As Commissioner Stamps noted, the legacy of Marion Stamps' name is about the village mentality. And if you've ever been in Cabrini Green or the near north side, you understand that everyone parents everyone else. No kid is left alone.

13:47 Everyone understands that the community is responsible for everyone who comes through these doors and comes in on these streets. And that's a mentality that we look forward to continuing here, that I look forward to instilling into the next generation, because it's so important to realize as I get older that the kids who are coming up are watching us whether we like it or we don't. So when we're paying attention or if we're not, they are looking at what we do and our actions are reflected in how they behave. And so we have to continue to be role models for the next generation.

14:18 And that's something that I learned from the Stamps family. So I am so grateful to be a part of this village, to be raised in this village, and to continue that legacy of Marion Stamps for the continued future of our generation of kids growing up not only in this community, but in the rest of Chicago. so congratulations again to the family and thank you for all you've done for our community. Thank you, thank you. Okay we are at a place, I'm gonna cede my time

14:49 because I've said enough, but For remarks, one- or two-minute remarks, because it's just in order. That's what my mama would want. She would like the people to always be able to have a voice and a say and not be talked at but talk with and among. So if there's a word you want to offer in remembrance of Mary and Stamps, this your moment now, because then we've got to call the mayor. It's Naima. So I, like the Stamps family,

15:21 I became associated with the Stamps family. I had the crossover. I was a good crossover. What I mean by that is I came from South Shore to Franklin Fine Arts Center based on my art, based on my legacy of my dad and my mom. My dad, Inglewood, my mom was South Shore Chattel. My grandmother on my mom's side, District 12, Neal Elementary. But I met Justice at Franklin and then went on to Lincoln Park.

15:56 So, again, I crossed over. I got on the bus. I sacrificed. That was something that I learned from my parents. And, you know, they had it on the north. I had it on the south, southeast side, Tarot Town. So my mother, though, would get scared every time I came up here and was hanging out with Justice in Cabrini. talking about uh you can go to miss stamp's house but uh you can't go to cabrini i said say what i i said baby everybody in cabrini got my back because i'm with justice just like if justice

16:30 came to me so thank you thank you thank you if you can read my shirt it says black excellence is my legacy thank you i can't say it enough to god be the glory and when my husband and i and that was 40-something years ago, doesn't he look good?

17:06 40-something years ago, we were in this community fighting, even before I met Marion, and all of the children who grew up at that time are our children. They respect us, and sometimes they, you know, didn't get it right, and we would have to straighten that out, too. This is my husband, and regardless of what happened in the community, God put us here to prepare us.

17:42 Both of us are pastors and have been for a number of decades. We didn't ask God to do that, but he did, and we thank God for that. This is a beautiful, beautiful situation this morning. Don't walk away thinking that this person didn't do it, that person didn't do it. God has placed you also here to here.

18:12 Amen? And it is so. To God be the glory. We give God the praises. We thank God for the Stamps children. You see, I was one of Marion's standby guys that paraded the community. And I just say that now I believe that Marion is much more than a day, much more than a sign that Marion was a revolutionary sister.

18:46 That's how I knew her. She struggled for the freedom of our people, the babies, the elders, and everybody that's in this near north side. And I believe Marion will be having a fit right now if she's seeing the rape of our community and what has happened to this community, because that's how I know her struggling. So I say I don't want to be long, but I just want to say and greet you in the manner of the New African Independent Movement and say free the land. When I say free the land, you say by any means necessary.

19:17 Free the land. By any means necessary. Free the land. By any means necessary. Free the land. By any means necessary. we acknowledge our mayor and mayor brandon who's a product of ours we just say keep up the good work Good morning. Good morning. My name is Nalye Stamps Bryant. I am Fisk Commish youngest son and the grandson of Marion Stamps.

19:49 I don't really got much to say. I just want to say that I'm thankful and I'm blessed to have a legacy start before I was even born. And it's an honor just to have my grandma's name on the street, have a day in her name. And, you know, I'm thankful and to God be the glory. Thank you. Good morning. I don't know how to say anything, but I just want to touch base it. My name is Brenda Shed, and I grew up on, as they say, the wild land.

20:21 I came down here in 1990. Marion Stamps grabbed me. I'm talking about literally grabbed me and said, I've been hearing about you. She gave me a job. She not only gave me a job, I had to bring my sons with me, and they were GDs. So this is the other crossing on the other side. Marion grabbed me and grabbed my kids, and I've been down here ever since. And we ain't got no study, but I got to talk about what she did. My son had got kicked out of school, and he needed to go to an alternative high school. And he had to go to the west side.

20:53 And he didn't want to go to the west side because of his gang affiliation. Marion Stamps put and told me, I'm going to get an alternative high school so these brothers on this north side will feel safe, and they're going to be able to go to it. And my son was the first in the graduate class of that alternative high school. Thank y'all. Gwant, Ms. Stamps is going to be the last speaker. Our mayor has to be the mayor to other people other than the Stamps.

21:28 I know. That's okay, babe. That's okay, babe. I just want to say. Gwant, you got to get the mic. I don't need the mic. Yes, you do. Don't just me. Oh, excuse me, excuse me. Look, the commissioner, real quick. I just want to say thank you. And I remember 30 days ago, coming out that door. I came in the hallway and I saw hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of people right here. 30 years ago. I pulled up just now and I heard her, turn that music down.

22:09 I just want to thank you all. I want to thank my sister, Commissioner Stamps, your momma's man. Come on, Eve. She a cold piece, too. The seeds that my momma put in us is real, and we ready to the people's man. We ready. We ready.

22:48 Thank you. Thank you. Long live the spirit of Marian, Queen, and Zynga Stamps. Now I have the pleasure to bring up a brother who started off as just a member of my village. And it was nearly 20 years ago. I think we had 21 now, but it's been a couple decades. And he walked in the building. I was late. I was, you know, teachers are the original bag ladies.

23:21 I was coming to the meeting, and I got in the meeting, and he was in there all suited up with his uniform on, navy blue and white, and had locks all the way down his back. And they were asking him a series of questions, all benign, all irrelevant, because they weren't in the classroom, and thus they didn't understand what our children needed. At that point in time, I had been in the classroom for over a decade, and I said, can't stop. Can y'all just hire this black man so we can move on with this?

23:51 You got a black man that want to come into projects to teach our children. I think we're done here. And that began my 20-year friendship with our now mayor, Brandon Johnson. We went to different schools. We taught at different schools. We did different things, but we were never far away from each other. And I remember a day, and I was doing some grocery shopping, and I got a call, and he said, Hey, they want me to come work for the teachers' union. You think I should go? I said, Hell, yeah. Then come get me.

24:24 And in that order That's what happened. So when the CTU took over the streets of Chicago for the very first time, he said, y'all got to call my girl Tara to be the emcee. And G said to this day, we know who you were. We thought you worked for the U. We thought you came from AFT or something. You handled that. And we have been moving on this city in righteousness since that moment. So whatever you hear about CTU or Tara Stamps or Marion Stamps or Mayor Brandon Johnson,

24:54 And no, the only reason they have to say what they have to say is because of the actions we are taking on behalf of black people, because we have been unapologetic in our message. We ain't buried the lead. We ain't laughed when nothing wasn't funny and we didn't scratch when we didn't itch. We didn't kiss the ring to get access to our people and to other oppressed and poor people in this city. And because we did not beg forgiveness or ask permission, we got to catch hell.

25:28 But like my sister said, we ready. They sold seeds, baby, but they didn't know our mama was the soil. So do your worst. Never again. Can I hear that? Never again. Never again. So without any further ado, let me bring the people's mayor. And my brother, Brandon Johnson.

25:59 Thank you so much, Commissioner Tara Stamps. And good morning, everyone. I promise I'm going to make sure that my remarks are brief. But I am so proud to stand here in Cabrini-Green in the midst of our people and knowing that I would have been the other mayor that Marion Stamps would have liked. Now, I'm not saying that we've not had a few words, but I know she would have still invited me in for some food

26:35 and maybe a little something else based upon the things I've heard about her. But in fact, we're not going to tell all of our business today. But it's to stand here as we honor the 30th anniversary of the life and dedicated work of the great, Marion, Queen, and Zynga Stamps. And I will just share a couple of brief stories of my connection with the Stamps legacy.

27:09 So believe it or not, though Commissioner Stamps gets all the credit, I met Justice first. So I just want to just set the record straight because when I was working for the New City YMCA, I got a real good glimpse into the legacy of Marion Stamps. And what I experienced, though, was an organizer and a lover of our people. And the way I understood the legacy of Marion Stamps, that once you made that connection, you're not just family, but you have work to do.

27:49 And justice put me to work right away. I didn't even know a car with the brand of Merkur even existed. This is how far Justin and I go back. Has anyone ever heard of a Merkur? Justice had one of three in the entire world. And I am grateful to Justice. And the former vice mayor is absolutely right. Justice could have easily gone on to law school and could have done so many different things but decided to do what she did and do what she does.

28:25 And then, of course, one of my fondest memories of Commissioner Stamps, I was teaching at Jenner Academy, and the children were getting real excited about learning, and she could hear the noise from my classroom. So she had to come in there and just kind of see what was going on. And I really did have everything under control. I did for the most part. But, you know, there was some Prats in there, you know, the Prats. So I shout out to the Prats family. There's a bunch of them in there.

29:03 And Miss Stamps came in that room and she said, you're not going to run this black man out of here. And then I politely said, open up your books to page 13. And my career has been smooth sailing. My great memories of Carla and Guana when I convinced Tara Stamps to move to the west side of Chicago with the soap. all intentions of her running for office one day i had this all planned out for her and it was carla who said the first five thousand dollars to her campaign

29:37 and we that five thousand dollars lasted from august to life february second and it lasted because we had a real dynamic sister in that office wanna stamps moved up and down those west side streets like they were Cabrini Green. I mean, she had the reach well beyond the neighborhood. And then, of course, with Uncle Richard, I was telling Vice Mayor Burnett, my first interaction with Uncle Richard, I got set up pretty bad teaching in Cabrini Green. So I put out a flyer

30:13 for students who wanted to be on the flag football team to come out for a tryout. And there had to be 70 kids out there, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth graders. And you know, Uncle Richard has this great history of coaching and teaching young people. And he never came back after that second day. I guess Uncle Richard was like, yeah, I'm good. Now I'm gonna go ahead and retire. But shout out to Uncle Richard. Thank you, brother, for always being there for us. And then one last story, because, you know, Naz and Nalia and Najida and Jabari,

30:45 I just can't wait to get to heaven so Marion can see Jabari do that high kick. Jahari, I'm sorry. Jahari and the legacy of Marion Stamps, it extends not just in education, fighting for housing and health care, but the arts and creativity. And I was spending one day with Jahari with the Pride Parade, and I said, I'm never going to try to do what Jahari does. I was sore for like three days. But the Bible says that a righteous person leaves an inheritance to their children's children.

31:23 And that's who Marion Stamps still is today. And there's a rumor, though, that she was so fierce that one particular mayor avoided his own press conference. Now, I don't know if that's true. That's just what I heard, that he avoided his own press conference. And now you have the mayor of the city of Chicago, west side, for the entire city of Chicago, by way of Cabrini-Green, now honoring her legacy. And with that, it is truly my honor, if the Stamps family could just stand here,

31:57 it is truly my honor to highlight and lift up the legacy of the incomparable Marion Stamps, not just a community organizer, but a lover of people. And whereas on the 30th anniversary of her passing, we honor not only the memory of Marion, Queen, and Zynga stamps, but the mother, grandmother, guardian, organizer, advocate, and movement builder, someone who pushed Mayor Harold Washington to do what he did.

32:33 My God. Yes, because the truth of the matter is, and I heard this directly from Cliff Kelly, that Mayor Washington was taken too long. And Marion Stamps was doing what she does in a meeting. And I believe the words were he needs to either use it or get off the pot. That's what I heard. And Cliff Kelly called Congressman Harold Washington at the time and said, listen, brother. But if you're going to do this, you need to come on with it and know that you have a sister that's going to make sure you become the first black mayor of the city of Chicago.

33:11 And that is why it is truly my honor of someone who produced black mayors, organizers, business leaders, politicians, community leaders alike. It is truly my honor, as mayor of this great city, I, Brandon Johnson, mayor of the city of Chicago, do hereby proclaim August 28, 2026, as Marion Nzinga Stamps Day in Chicago.

33:52 Let's take a photo. That's OK. And can you help me with this? It needs to be better positioned so that it doesn't slide out there.

Sources and methods: how we get and count this data · report an error