Transition of Pat Hill, former CAEC board member

[Toussaint Losier]

Greetings, 

We are very sad to share the news that Patricia Hill,  one of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign's earliest members and a former board member, passed away earlier this week.

Many of us knew her as "Mama Pat" and for her leadership in a number of grassroots struggles, including the fight against police torture as well as efforts to win international recognition of human rights violations here in the U.S. She had deep roots in Chicago and traveled around the world in service of these causes.

She played a key role in helping to launch the Anti-Eviction Campaign. As a community leader and seasoned activist, she consistently provided words of encouragement and support. She had a warm smile and big heart, but also an iron determination that easily inspired others.

From the outset, Mama Pat went beyond mere encouragement. She offered the Anti-Eviction Campaign a consistent meeting location at Ms Sis Place, the cafe at 75th and Dorchester. Over the next five years, "the Cafe" would host not just meetings and community events, but also staff offices and emergency housing for campaign organizers and volunteers. 

When the banks trashed out the building and attempted to evict the campaign, she challenged us not to give up and walk away. Within days, campaign members had reoccupied the building and had taken on the difficult work of fixing up the property. 

She also helped the Anti-Eviction Campaign to secure a public takeover home on 67th and S Prairie, its first, and spoke out in regards to her own home foreclosure. Campaign organizers and volunteers fought with her against the banks, twice putting her back into her home. She refused to give up and joined the ancestors still living in her home.

She often cautioned those of us in the campaign to take the long view when thinking about the struggle for human rights. "It is about your generation finishing my generation's work," she once said, "and leaving the next generation less work to do." 

Yet, rather than retiring from the battlefield, after decades of working as a teacher, police officer, and college professor, she devoted her last years to ensuring that those of us committed to enforcing human rights had a foundation upon which to carry on the struggle.

Each of us will remember Mama Pat in a different way, but we all knew her as a person committed to justice and unafraid to fight for it. Our memories of her are priceless. To her last days, she was a pillar of strength, a warrior.

Visitation is planned for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Leak and Sons Funeral Home, 7838 South Cottage Grove. 

Hamba Kahle Mama Pat

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Here is a news article about her amazing life:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-patricia-hill-obituary-met-20170906-story.html