Sierra Club Illinois Marches Against BP with Rev. Jesse Jackson

Our Illinois Chapter got a visit from a major icon. On Monday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson invited Illinois Chapter staffers Jack Darin, Jen Hensley and Sarah Gulezian to march with him and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition at a Chicago BP Station. Check out this video from the event:



Jen Hensley, the Illinois Chapter program manager, said the march started with 10-15 people, but added people at each block and ended with around 50 people all calling for BP to pick up the full tab for its oil disaster on the Gulf Coast. Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition is calling for a full BP boycott.

For Hensley and chapter director Jack Darin, the whole experience happened very quickly and left them a little awe-struck.

"It was last second - about three hours before-hand his staff asked us to team up with him for this," said Darin. "It was a very powerful experience to be teamed up with one of the most inspirational civil rights leaders of our time."

To Darin, it was great to see the opportunity to take such a tragic event as the BP oil disaster as a chance to build a broader base of support for clean energy policies.

Hensley agreed. "We talked about how there are so many similarities between the civil rights movement and the environmental movement. It was very awe-inspiring, interesting and humbling."

Darin added that a figure as powerful and well-known as the Rev. Jesse Jackson made for a great response to the march. "Usually with our events, if the police show up it's because they want you to move. This time they were stopping to get their pictures taken with Rev. Jackson."

The Sierra Club's Illinois Chapter will again team up with Rev. Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition on Friday, May 28, at 4pm (CT) for another march. They're inviting people to meet them at the BP station at the corner of Roosevelt and Wabash in downtown Chicago (a location right off a public transit stop, too).

Darin said they look forward to the continued work with Rev. Jackson. "He's really a household name as a champion for justice with so many Americans. He brings sort of an ability to connect with millions of Americans in a way the Sierra Club often cannot. Together we can really be very powerful teammates for change."