Dorothy Tillman stands outside New Friendship Baptist Church, 848 W. 71st St., where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. kicked off his historic march on Marquette Park on Aug. 5, 1966. As drunks stumble past, Tillman — the retired longtime Third Ward alderman who as a King aide followed him from Alabama to Chicago in 1965 to help launch the Chicago Freedom Movement — surveys the surrounding vacant lots and boarded-up buildings and shakes her head. Driving down 71st Street, Tillman retraces the route she marched with King at age 19, and in Marquette Park, walks their route, toward the lagoon, to stand where she believes King spoke after the attack by a violent mob.
