Grant Park, Urban Parks: Diversity, Democracy, and Freedom
“Grant Park, known as Lake Park until it was renamed for Ulysses S. Grant in 1901, lies not far from the route of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession, was the home of at least four political conventions in the late 1800s, was visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1959, was the site of a clash between the police and antiwar protesters during the Democratic convention in 1968, and was the place where Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass with thousands in 1979. The park is home to the annual Taste of Chicago, as well as games of 16-inch softball played by generations of Chicagoans.
‘You couldn’t have a place more infused with Chicago and more infused with everything that Chicago has experienced,’ said the city’s cultural historian, Tim Samuelson, who noted that parts of the park were probably built on debris left behind from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.” Monica Davey, N.Y. Times, Nov. 1, 2008.
And President-Elect Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Grant Park on November 4, 2008.
Photograph Joseph Voves Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike
