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F.A.I.T.H. Inc.
History
For Action In Togetherness Hold Fast has for years been assisting clients in Austin and the West Side of Chicago, to take the steps for re-integration into society. F.A.I.T.H.'s roots go deep into the West Side as it spawned from the West Side Organization, one of the earliest civil rights organizations in Chicago. Our nonprofit activist work seeks to provide those in need with the tools necessary to be functioning members of society. The history behind the civil rights movement in Chicago demonstrates just how important that is for the people of the West Side.
The timeline has been created to provide a linear display of the key events which took place between World War I and recent years in the history of the West Side community and F.A.I.T.H. Inc. The purpose of the timeline is to help you understand the origins of F.A.I.T.H. Inc.
The roots of F.A.I.T.H. Inc. reach back to Reverend John H. Crawford's West Side activism in the 60s and 70s when he was among the first members of the West Side Organization. Although WSO is no longer active, Rev. Crawford remains committed to improving the community and providing formerly incarcerated individuals with resources to re-integrate into society.
West Side Organisation for Full Employment was officially formed by West Side community members in 1964. The organization primarily addressed persistent unemployment and poor living conditions in the West Side. The group's founders were working on these and other issues - including segregation in the Chicago Public Schools - as early as 1962. WSO was also an integral part of the civil rights movement in the West Side and Austin.
The founders of the WSO each brought a set of skills which gave the organization its unique attitude and way of working with Chicago's West Side communities.
In the 1960's, America was inflamed for change and equal rights for black folks. As the population of the West Side alternated from predominately white to predominately black in the span of a few years, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other black American leaders noticed just how important Chicago, and the West Side, had become for the progression of the civil rights movement.
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