Saul Alinsky, a world-renowned activist and iconic leader in the civil rights movement, passed away on June 12, 1972 at the age of 63. Alinsky was born in Chicago, IL on January 30, 1909 and grew up in the Beaux Arts style neighborhood of Lawndale. As a young adult, he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Chicago where he earned his degree in criminology and later resumed his studies at the same school to receive a master's degree in sociology. He was responsible for numerous public initiatives and published multiple books including, "John L. Lewis: An Unauthorized Biography" and "Reveille for Radicals." Alinsky was the founder of the Industrial Committees of the Unemployed during the Great Depression and in the 1940's he became a director at the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council in Chicago. He later founded the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), an organization that developed ways to enable citizens of low-income areas to address local problems. Alinsky was a passionate advocate for social change and an inspirational figure to many of the great social activists of the time including Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. His lifetime of work as a critical social figure earned him numerous prestigious awards including the Carter G. Woodson Award by the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, the Edward J. Pierce Award by Harvard Law School, and the Family Life Foundation Award for leadership in social ethics. His death is an immense loss to the progressive movement and will be remembered with reverence for many years to come.