Brandon Johnson salutes his past while looking toward Chicago's future

It's Monday morning. In a few hours, he will address thousands of Democrats gathered at the United Center and millions more tuning into the 2024 Democratic National Convention. But right now, Mayor Brandon Johnson is at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, at 555 E. 51st St., about to speak to a few dozen people. He stands poised by the steps to a small platform.

"They're coming for him!" Jitu Brown, national director of Journey for Justice, a coalition of grassroots educational organizations, tells the gathering. Brown, who led a 34-day hunger strike in 2015 to reopen Dyett, prowls the stage, invoking faceless forces set against the mayor.

"Because they want him to privatize. They want him to privatize," Brown says. "They don't want him to love Black and Brown children. They were silent when they were closing over 160 schools in this city. ... They don't get to decide no more. Kwame Nkrumah said this: 'It is better to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else.'"

With that complicated compliment tossed out, the man trying to govern the sprawling city of Chicago as it welcomes one president, two candidates, thousands of delegates and protesters, not to forget all the other daily doings of a major city, takes the podium.

"I'm grateful that we have come together to fortify our position as we push for sustainable community schools to be the model throughout our entire school district," says Johnson, who joined the 2015 Dyett hunger strike on its 24th day. "This model is not simply about teachers and teachers' assistants; it's also about the families who make up the community."

Party politics might be about to push Johnson onto the world stage, but first Johnson takes the time to go to Bronzeville and give some love to a cause dear to his heart. “Sustainable community schools” is a major Chicago Teachers Union effort to remake the public schools so that rather than compete for scarce magnet slots, students attend schools in their own neighborhoods with curriculum that will, in the CTU's words, "humanize education in a way that is antiracist and advances equity and justice."

It's a message that Johnson is eager to share with the world. Earlier, at the Chicago Hilton, 720 S. Michigan Ave., Johnson told a Michigan delegation breakfast that politicians need to put public money where their mouths are.

"I came up as a union organizer and a proud middle school social studies teacher," he told them. "I also understand we have to invest in people ... We have $20 billion in new investment in the city of Chicago in my first 15 months. We are putting billions of dollars in the West and South sides of the city of Chicago for people who have been historically disinvested. That's the same work Vice President Kamala Harris is calling for: $300 billion into our education system. She's calling for the largest investment in public education in America's history. That's why we have to make sure we elect her."

Johnson finished to cheers and applause, and re-using one of his favorite lines, calling Chicago "the greatest freakin' city in the world." He will reuse it in his afternoon convention speech (but "freakin'" will be deleted).

The public has room for a single fact when remembering a convention: 1968 was the riots. 1996 was iron railings and flowers. How, Johnson was asked, would he like the 2024 convention to remembered?

"I want this convention to be remembered as the beauty of the soul of America being defined through love and investments," he replied. Love and investments? "It's the phrase that Jesus said," Johnson said. "Where your treasure is your heart will be also."

About 5:50 p.m. Johnson got his chance to put his own spin at the convention. In his nearly four-minute speech, he name-checked a few Chicago greats — Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ida B. Wells, Barack Obama — and touched upon a question that is key for unlocking a raft of Chicago problems: crime, education, the economy.

"Think about it," Johnson said. "What will it take to build the middle class and make it easier for families not only to get by but to get ahead?"

In closing, he tried to build rhetorical momentum by repeating, "Kamala Harris — she's got us!"

Kamala Harris has gone from 2020 also-ran, to ignored VP, to party superstar in an astoundingly short time. Now the question is whether the people Harris has got will themselves have what it takes to get her over the finish line.