Walter “Slim” Coleman was a longtime activist and community organizer whose public profile rose during his time as supporter and adviser to Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s.
“He was a skillful community organizer, and spent his whole life fighting for social justice and committed to fighting for the lives of ordinary people,” said educator and political activist Mike Klonsky, a longtime friend.
Coleman, 80, died of heart failure on April 16, said his wife, Emma Lozano. A longtime Pilsen resident, Coleman had been battling a host of medical problems, including failing kidneys, autoimmune disease and cancer, Lozano said.
Walter Leslie Coleman Jr. was born in 1943 in Houston, and received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1965 from Harvard University. He first began working as a political organizer in Cleveland and then moved to Chicago, where he sought to organize a political coalition in the diverse population in Uptown.
“Slim was a dedicated community organizer who cut his teeth with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the South,” Klonsky said.
He also worked on housing issues in Cleveland before the SNCC asked him to go to Chicago with the Students for a Democratic Society, according to Klonsky.
Early on, Coleman specialized in organizing what he described as Uptown’s “hillbilly whites,” according to a 1987 Tribune article. He initially went by the name Les Coleman, according to early news coverage, before favoring the nickname “Slim.”
“I remember his 100% commitment to his work and living a very austere personal life, living among the poorest people in the city and working with them,” Klonsky said. “And especially, Slim was noted for his commitment to organizing poor whites wherever he worked.”
Through Students for a Democratic Society, Coleman became acquainted with the Black Panther Party, and after leaving the SDS, Coleman and a partner, Cathy Archibald, formed the People’s Information Center in Lincoln Park to allow for assistance to poor and working-class whites and Hispanics on the North Side. Coleman subsequently formed what came to be known as the Heart of Uptown Coalition.
“Slim was the epitome of a humanist to me,” said former Black Panther Party member Billy “Che” Brooks. “He really believed in solidarity, and the class struggle was something that he could articulate in any kind of circle. He just fit in. What stands out is his sincerity and his commitment to organizing and to have an impact on injustices no matter what they were — housing, equity in medicine. And Slim didn’t have an ego. He was very humble.”
In 1975, Coleman was the campaign manager for Jose “Cha-Cha” Jimenez, who ran for 46th Ward alderman as an independent but lost to Ald. Chris Cohen. In 1980, Coleman was a supporter of Republican Cook County State’s Attorney Bernard Carey, who lost in his bid for reelection to then-state Sen. Richard M. Daley.
During the administrations of Mayors Richard J. Daley, Michael Bilandic and Jane Byrne, Coleman was a familiar figure at City Hall along with other members of the Heart of Uptown Coalition, many of whom would chant, carry signs and make noise for television cameras on a variety of issues.
Coleman was an early supporter of Harold Washington’s mayoral bid, taking an active role in the historic voter registration drive that helped propel the state legislator to the fifth floor of City Hall in 1983. Coleman then began to be seen as a political insider and an informal adviser to Washington. He also acquired press credentials through his role as publisher of All Chicago City News, a biweekly, bilingual newspaper.
Coleman retained his Southern drawl and sported slicked-back hair and scuffed boots. In 1986, the Tribune’s Robert Davis observed that Coleman had adopted “the clothing and accent of an organizer out of a John Steinbeck novel.”
In June 1985, Coleman clashed at a Chicago City Council meeting with then-Ald. Edward Vrdolyak after the alderman spotted Coleman in the press gallery and called him a “funeral director for the Nazi Party,” in reference to a funeral held by Coleman, who had been battling racist street gangs in Uptown, for a former member of a white supremacist street gang. That prompted Coleman to leap over a divider and rush onto the council floor to scream insults and threats at Vrdolyak. After Vrdolyak pressed charges, Coleman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge and was fined $50.
“I defended my name against an outrageous slander,” Coleman told reporters after pleading guilty in November 1985. “I was disorderly, so I have paid $50 to the state.”
After Washington left office, Coleman was less often in the public eye. He co-authored a 1989 book, “Fair Share: The Struggle for the Rights of the People,” and he joined the local school councils at both Lozano Elementary School and Wells High School on the Near Northwest Side. He later received a master of divinity degree from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and served as pastor at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park.
The church drew national attention in 2006 when Mexican-born Elvira Arellano, who lacked legal residency in the U.S., took sanctuary there. Arellano’s promotion of the church sanctuary movement was one where she was aiming to prevent being deported away from her young son, who had been born in the U.S.
Ultimately, Arellano left the church the following year and traveled to Los Angeles, where she was arrested and deported. The case, along with Coleman’s commitment to families in the U.S. without legal permission, led to a 2017 book he wrote, “Elvira’s Faith.”
Until his death, Coleman and his wife led Lincoln United Methodist Church in Pilsen.
In addition to his wife, Coleman is survived by two sons, Robert Rico and Roberto C. Lopez; three daughters, Anita Rico, Tanya Lozano and Joline Lozano; six grandchildren; and a brother, Brady.
A celebration of life service is being planned for late May at Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s headquarters, Lozano said.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.