Southern abortion rights advocates arrive in Chicago for ‘Black August Freedom Rides’

Abortion rights advocates from Mississippi and Tennessee who are part of the “Black August Freedom Rides” arrive at Union Station on Wednesday morning. Organizers from those states and Louisiana traveled via train to Chicago to bring attention to people who will be traveling from states in the South where abortion will be illegal in a post-Roe v. Wade world. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

More than 100 years after Black residents fled racial and social injustices in the South during the Great Migration, some individuals may have to make similar journeys to Chicago and other cities to seek access to legal abortions since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

“It’s a hard reality that we are still here in 2022,” said Lakeesha Harris, the co-executive director of Lift Louisiana. “People say when Roe (v. Wade) fell, we went back 50 years. Actually, when Roe fell — for Black people — we are rolling back over 100 years.”