Dorothy Burge
One of the original organizers and members - Chicago Torture Justice Memorials
Dorothy Burge is a multimedia artist and community activist who is inspired by both historic and current social justice issues.
She is recognized by many as one of the strongest voices in Chicago for police accountability and reparations for survivors of police torture. In 2013, a reparations ordinance was drafted to provide redress to approximately 120 African American men and women subjected to racially motivated torture, including electric shock, mock executions, suffocation and beatings by now former Police Commander Jon Burge (no relation) and his subordinates from 1972 through 1991. Dorothy played an invaluable role on the negotiation committee with other representatives from Chicago Torture Justice Memorials (CTJM), the People’s Law Office and Amnesty International. As part of a collective leadership model, she and others successfully advocated for the grandchildren of torture survivors to be recipients of free tuition at Chicago community colleges in addition to painstakingly working out the forms of redress in the package. Dorothy was also one of seven people who were invited to testify at the City Council Finance Committee hearing on the reparation’s ordinance, astutely making the point that “We have not come here talking in your traditional manner about justice. We are here talking about…the harm that was done to our community. We’re talking about who was involved in that harm and now what is needed to begin the healing process so we can be made whole.”
Dorothy is a quiet leader who is amplifying the voices of survivors of police torture and of activists in the movement. She is one of the key figures in Chicago who has changed the way police violence is publicly talked about and engaged with. She merges on-the-ground activism with a push to change city-wide perceptions and policy and brings together people from art, justice and grassroots organizing to work together towards a common goal. She designed curriculum to expose students to the problem of police violence but also to involve them in building further awareness and contributing to the work local organizations are doing to address police violence. A trusted voice across Chicago, she has a keen ability to work with, move through and influence diverse activist and civic communities. She did this on top of the work she did as a faculty member Associated Colleges of the Midwest Chicago Program where she taught seminars on systemic racism, criminal justice, and social problems for twenty-six years ending in 2019.
