A West Side pastor who is building a center for “arts and activism” has been named one of the world’s top 100 rising influential voices by Time magazine.
Marshall Hatch Jr., pastor at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church at 4031 W. Washington Blvd. in West Garfield Park, was named to Time’s 100 Next list, a compilation of up-and-coming innovators, artists, leaders and advocates.
Hatch, 37, is featured among names such as WNBA star Paige Bueckers, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and new CBS News boss Bari Weiss. He made the list for his advocacy work as the executive director of the church’s social justice ministry, the MAAFA Redemption Project.
Hatch will attend the Time100 Next ceremony Thursday in New York City.
Rev. Al Sharpton wrote about Hatch for Time’s list, with Sharpton saying he watched Hatch grow up while working with his father, longtime faith leader Marshall Hatch Sr., to advance social justice on the West Side.
“As President Donald Trump continues to send federal law enforcement into a series of American cities, it has never been so important to elevate the leaders on the ground who are actually building communities up,” Sharpton wrote.
When asked what the honor means to him, Hatch responded with one word: ubuntu. The ancient African phrase translates to, “I am, because we are,” Hatch said, emphasizing his commitment to community.
“We’ve been the boots on the ground,” Hatch said. “We’ve been doing, as [Civil Rights icon] Ella Baker said, the spade work of building people, building community from within.”
The MAAFA Redemption Project was founded in 2017 with the mission of improving the lives of Black and Brown youth and young adults. The Redemption Project works with men ages 18-30, who live in a dormitory setting while receiving services including education, financial empowerment, mental health, workforce development and housing support.
Men in the project are considered fellows in a nine-month cohort. This May, 29 fellows graduated as part of the project’s eighth cohort, Hatch said.
Fellows are paired with a life coach to develop a personalized life plan, setting short- and long-term goals for themselves. This year, all fellows completed their plan, Hatch said.
Last month, the MAAFA Redemption Project broke ground on an $8 million Center for Arts and Activism as the new home base for the project at 4241 W. Washington Blvd., formerly St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.
The new Redemption Project center will also house MAAFA’s Beautiful Seed Foundation, which is dedicated to empowering women 18-30 in a 24-week fellowship, as well as the Sankofa School for the Arts, which will offer dance, musical theater, visual arts and digital arts programs.
With federal immigration officers deployed throughout the city and frequently sparring with neighbors, the need for community building is as important as ever, Hatch said: “What is happening with ICE and the threat of more federal agents descending on Chicago is nothing more than a political stunt,” Hatch said. “It’s a ruse … an excuse. It’s not about crime at all. It’s about control. If the president was serious, he would offer more sustainable solutions like targeting the root causes of a lot of the public safety issues.
“This [The MAAFA Redemption Project] is the sustainable solution to issues like public safety.”
Hatch grew up in Garfield Park and Austin. Walking down Madison Street as a kid — seeing “trash, broken glass and drunk people out” and not understanding the condition of his neighborhood — influenced his passion for community advocacy.
His father, Hatch Sr., has been the senior pastor at Mount Pilgrim Church since 1993 and himself the son of a well-known pastor, Hatch Jr. sought to break from the family tradition to become a lawyer.
After graduating from Lincoln Park High School, Hatch attended Bates College in Maine, where he majored in political science and minored in religious studies. While away at school, Hatch learned more about the origins of residential segregation and redlining in Chicago. This awakening, combined with life experiences during this time, led him to his calling as a servant leader.
“In my early 20s, the same God that I heard my father preach about, I experienced for myself, and it became my God,” Hatch said. “That’s what allowed me to really surrender to this specific call of social justice ministry.”
As a pastor, Hatch has worked to empower young people to be active in their communities. The work is not unfamiliar to Hatch: his aunt, Rhoda Jean Hatch, was a well-known West Side activist whose work led her to grace the cover of People Magazine.
The fights for social justice “have to be fought on all fronts,” said Hatch, invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr. That belief has informed his work with MAAFA in its efforts to provide all-encompassing social and economic services. MAAFA takes its name from the Swahili word for “great disaster,” a term used to describe the transatlantic slave trade.
Hatch also said he sees his work as showing the strength in building community to combat oppression in its many forms.
“This moment has to be looked at through the lens of American history,” Hatch said. “It was King who said the triple evils of American society are racism, materialism and militarism. … This is all about Trump flexing for power, and so we have to do our part to flex our power in the ways that we can in West Garfield Park.
“And it’s as contagious as fear. That kind of courage and coming together is as contagious as fear, if not more.”