A guest column by AAM Field Coordinator Rachel Bennett Steury: On Monday, Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) field coordinators from Indiana and Illinois joined hundreds in Chicago to celebrate the life of Frank Lumpkin, who passed in March at the age of 93.  A tireless advocate for working families, Lumpkin built a reputation and a movement in the Chicago area, fighting for basic civil and human rights for thousands of workers in the mill where he once worked and in the neighborhood and the state he called home.   Having such a long and fruitful life brought many from Lumpkin’s’ past to join in the remembrance including past coworkers from Wisconsin Steel, members of Illinois Citizens Action Coalition, children of Lumpkin’s friends that have since passed, Alderman Pope, Reverend Burke and Father Mark and Senator Trotter, who ran against him in the eighties for a state representative seat.   The panel was led by Lumpkin’s wife, Bea and SOAR chapter President Ed Sadlowski, with Lumpkin’s’ niece Nicole Perini and SOAR sister Kathleen Peeples singing in tribute.  Sadlowski remembered Lumpkin as a man who never walked away from a fight and how his commitment continues on in the afterlife, “When you stop singing, the revolution is over, but Frank was singing his ass off for every cause.  I’m sure he’s trying to organize the angels now.”  Bea spoke of her husband's lifelong bonds with people in the crowd: “When the system doesn’t work we have to change it.  Frank knew who the people were who were going to change the system and they’re in this room-- the workers.  He knew working people united had the strength to make the changes we need.” Jeff Raines, Rachel Bennett Steury, Mike Mitchell, and Victor Storino attended the memorial.  Storino and Lumpkin were members of the same SOAR Chapter, 31-9 with Storino calling the crowd of friends to continue to work for justice on behalf of Frank, who always fought for jobs and working families.   Lumpkin’s’ story is sure not to be forgotten, as his wife of 60 years, Beatrice Lumpkin, wrote his biography.  “Always Bring a Crowd” published in 1999, details his full and fiery life as an activist.   For stories and video of Frank, click here, here, here,and here.