Labor Day Protest To Close Kennedy Expressway Near O'Hare Airport

CHICAGO — Activists behind the anti-violence march to Wrigley Field weeks ago that briefly shut down Lake Shore Drive are planning a similar protest on Labor Day along the Kennedy Expressway near O'Hare International Airport. Like the event earlier this month, the Sept. 3 demonstration will be another effort by protesters to demand for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's resignation, as well as urge local lawmakers to invest more in the city's South and West sides and to reopen 50 schools that have been closed under Emanuel's administration, organizers said.

"Since August 3rd Chicago has experienced over 100 shooting victims and over 15 murder victims," the Rev. Gregory Livingston, the interim pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in West Humboldt Park and one of the leaders of the Aug. 2 Wrigley Field rally, wrote in a recent social media post announcing the upcoming protest. "Mayor Rahm Emanuel has publicly confessed his befuddlement at reducing this violence by talking about community values when the stark and tragic truth of the matter is that it is his values that are actually fueling this continued mayhem."

During a press conference Wednesday, Aug. 22, at City Hall, Livingston said demonstrators will gather for the Labor Day event at around 11:30 a.m. Sept. 3 at the Kennedy Expressway on-ramp at Cumberland Avenue, the Chicago Tribune reports. The march officially will begin at noon, and protesters will proceed along the Kennedy for about a mile to River Road, shutting down that stretch of the expressway and snarling holiday traffic to and from O'Hare, the report added.

WATCH: Anti-Violence Protest Closes Lake Shore Drive, Ends At Wrigley (VIDEO)

If it goes as planned, this latest event would be Chicago's third anti-violence protest this summer designed to disrupt automobile travel along a major street or highway in or around the city. Chicago police estimated around 150 people participated in the Aug. 2 event, although organizers put the attendance number at about 500.

Earlier this summer, hundreds of demonstrators led by the Rev. Michael Pfleger marched on the South Side on July 7, closing the north lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway. That protest had the support of Emanuel and Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson, something organizers of the latest demonstrations have criticized.

WATCH: Hundreds Of Anti-Violence Protesters Shut Down Dan Ryan (VIDEO)

"We're not looking for any kind of help from Mayor Emanuel because, Jesus said, 'How can Satan cast out Satan?' He's then divided against himself," Livingston said before the Wrigley Field rally.

More via the Chicago Tribune

A protester participating during the Aug. 2 anti-violence demonstration that marched along Lake Shore Drive to Wrigley Field. (Photo by Amber Fisher | Patch)