The Rev. Corey Brooks, best known for camping out on a Chicago rooftop for almost a year in 2012 to raise funds to build a new community center in Woodlawn, will deliver the closing prayer during Tuesday’s session of the Republican National Convention.
Brooks, a Republican, posted on social media that he is “grateful for this opportunity and looking forward to giving a shoutout to Chicago and Opportunity Block,” a reference to Brooks’ efforts to remake one of Chicago’s most violent blocks – known as O Block – into a place of transformation for South Side residents.
In an opinion piece published by Fox News on Tuesday to coincide with his appearance at the RNC, Brooks said he has been a Republican for more than 10 years in a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic.
Democrats subscribe to a “victimhood mindset,” Brooks wrote.
“Far too many people in my community, all of them Democrats, have that self-defeating mindset,” Brooks wrote. “I know politics is politics, but my true reason for choosing the Republican Party was to show others in my community that I was free to choose wherever I wanted to go — this victimhood mentality had no control over me,” Brooks said. “Most of all, I wanted to show my neighbors that politics was no substitution for religion or some higher spiritual realm.”
Brooks once transformed a former skating rink at King Drive and 66th Street into New Beginnings Church along King Drive at 66th Street and is now working to build a $40 million community center next door. Brooks has said he is still several million dollars short, and has criticized Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for not providing city assistance.
Brooks frequently posts about having lost “colleagues, associates, and friends” because of his conservative views while decrying the violence that plagues the South Side of Chicago and criticizing public education.
Brooks, who frequently appears on Fox News and other shows targeted at conservative voters, is one of a number of Black and Latino Republicans to be featured in high-profile events at convention.
State Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, a delegate, said his slot showed the GOP is a “big tent party.”
“When you see African Americans, Latinos, and I think we’re going to see some other demographic groups that are going to be represented – I think America is going to see very clearly that the big tent party is here,” Bryant said. “We’re united, and honestly, someone like Corey Brooks speaking on the stage tonight should send a message that we are united in that message and we’re united going forward.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]