Lori Lightfoot
Lori Lightfoot is the Mayor of Chicago. She is married to Amy Eshleman.
Background
Lori Lightfoot was born in Massillon, Ohio. Her mother was a healthcare aide and school board member, and her father a factory worker and janitor.
She is a graduate of Washington High School in Massillon, where she helped organize a boycott of her school's lunch program over the quality of its pizza.
Lightfoot received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from University of Michigan in 1984, graduating with honors. She worked seven jobs to afford her education, including working as a resident assistant. She also worked factory jobs at home during summers to help pay for her education. While Lightfoot was an undergraduate, her older brother was arrested in connection with a bank robbery.
Lightfoot took jobs working for Congress members Ralph Regula and Barbara Mikulski before deciding to attend law school.She has said she chose to attend law school not because of her brother's legal troubles, but because she wanted a job that offered financial independence. She matriculated at University of Chicago Law School, where she was awarded a full scholarship. As president of the University of Chicago Law School's student body, she led a successful movement to ban a law firm from campus after the firm sent a recruiter who made racist and sexist remarks towards a student. Lightfoot also served as a clerk for Justice Charles Levin of the Michigan Supreme Court. She graduated from University of Chicago with her Juris Doctor degree in 1989.
Blocks Immigration & Customs Enforcement Access to Police Database
On July 12 2019, it was reported that Lori Lightfoot "has taken steps to ensure that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) will not cooperate with ICE [Immigration & Customs Enforcement] ahead of sweeps..."[1]
From the article:
- "'They will not team up with ICE to detain any resident. We have also cut off ICE access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent,' she said, adding that she had spoken with the agency's leadership to object to the planned raids.
- 'Chicago is and will always be a welcoming city that will never tolerate ICE tearing our families apart,' she said."
Radical supporter
Jackie Kaplan-Perkins has been a leader in Chicago’s non-profit, philanthropic and political communities for nearly three decades. Jackie has served as Finance Director for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, and held senior staff positions at the Chicago Foundation for Women, the Shriver Center for Poverty Law, and Human Rights Watch. In addition, Jackie had been recognized with fellowships in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generations Leadership Program, Leadership Greater Chicago, and American Jewish World Service Justice Program. Jackie’s community involvement has included serving on the Finance Committee for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign, as co-chair for (then) Senator Barack Obama’s LGBT Outreach Committee as well as on the board of directors of numerous organizations including Community Media Workshop, Horizon Community Center (now the Center on Halsted), Public Allies, The Chicago Reporter, The Peace Museum and is on the Braintrust of Chicago Ideas Week. A lifelong Chicagoan and daughter of immigrants, Jackie grew up on the north side in the late 70s where she spent her time watching the Cubs, listening to Styx, reading socialist Cuban newspapers with her father and pitching pennies in the basement of Congregation Ezra Israel. Jackie lives in Chicago with her wife and son. [2]