By Published on May 1, 2026 The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and fellow Civil Rights leaders including the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Marion Barry, Roy Wilkins, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the Rev. Joseph Lowery and A. Phillip Randolph walk down a Chicago street during the 1960 Republican National Convention. Local movement leaders, who staged protests at the convention, would persuade King to return to the city to lead the Chicago Freedom Movement four years later.