Civil-rights activist Rev. Willie T. Barrow—known in some circles as "The High Priestess of Protest" or "The Little Warrior"—has died, according to reports. Barrow, 90, was chairperson emeritus for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, an organization she helped found.
She passed away at Jackson Park hospital early in the morning of March 10, according to The Chicago Tribune. No cause of death was given, but Barrow had been receiving treatment for a blood clot.
Barrow had been active in numerous civil-rights causes since the '40s. She was one of the founding members of Operation Breadbasket, which eventually became the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and was a top aide to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. throughout much of his activist work. She served as Jackson's Illinois campaign manager when he ran for president in 1984, and was also active in campaigns for Mayor Harold Washington and President Obama.
She organized demonstrators for both the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 March on Selma. In 2004, she told Windy City Times about drawing inspiration from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: "The things that I found fascinating were his humility and vision. He wasn't afraid to share the things that he saw and what he felt. He tried to bring together as many people as possible. That ties in with my theme for the 21st century: 'We are not so much divided as we are disconnected.' What struck me most was how he could connect with people—and how important that was."
She advocated against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, as well as on behalf of women's and children's causes. She participated as a superdelegate for the Democratic Party eight times.
Her commitment to the LGBT community was ignited after she lost her son Keith to AIDS in the early '80s.
"One night, in 1979, he called me from Paris and said 'Momma, I don't think I'll be able to go on stage tonight. I really feel sick,' Barrow recalled to Windy City Times. "I said, 'Oh, you'll be alright.' I prayed for him and then he called again a couple of hours later and he said: 'Momma, I can't perform. I have to go; they have to take me to the hospital.' That's when he found out that he had [what was later determined to be] HIV."
Keith was remembered with a panel on the National AIDS Quilt in 1988. When the Quilt was displayed in Chicago in 1988, Barrow joined then-Mayor Eugene Sawyer and author Studs Turkel, among others, to read the names of those who had died. The first name she read was that of her son.
A Texas native, Barrow attended Warner-Pacific Theological Seminary in Portland, Oregon, where she met her husband, Clyde, to whom she was married for more than 50 years. They arrived in Chicago in 1945, when Barrow went to work as a youth minister at Langley Avenue Church of God. She most recently served as minister of justice at Vernon Hills Church of God.
Barrow said that she enjoyed meeting and working with young people, and was "godmother" to more than 100 people.
"I think I'm just committed to people, period. It's so strange; all of these people say that they want to be my godchildren," Barrow told Windy City Times. "They're of all races and creeds; they're Jews, Arabs, Asians, Mexicans, and Blacks. It's like a rainbow. ... So many of our young people can't talk to their parents. When my son went to school, he ran into so many people who said that they couldn't talk to their parents; he would tell them to come home and talk to me because he knew that they could talk to me about anything."
