McKnight helped teach Barack Obama the skills of community organizing
John L. McKnight, public citizen and activist extraordinaire, retired Professor of Speech and Urban Affairs at Northwestern University, co-founder of the Asset-Based Community Institute, husband, father, and mentor to endless friends and students, died peacefully at his home in Evanston on November 2, 2024 at the age of 92.
McKnight was raised a traveling Ohioan, having lived in seven neighborhoods and small towns in the eighteen years before he left to attend Northwestern University. Enrolling as a Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) scholar, John’s energetic and visible activism opposing segregation and quotas restricting the numbers of Black and Jewish students are recognized in the recorded history of the university. At Northwestern, he also had the good fortune to be educated by a faculty dedicated to preparing students for effective citizenship. He graduated into the U.S. Navy, where from 1953 to 1956 he had three years of “postgraduate” education in Asia during the Korean War.
John returned to Chicago and began working for several activist organizations, including the Chicago Commission for Human Relations, the first municipal civil rights agency. There he learned the Alinsky tradition of community organizing, followed by directorship of the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union, where he organized local chapters throughout the state.
When John Kennedy was elected president, McKnight was recruited into the federal government, working with a new agency that created the affirmative action program. In 1965 he was appointed the Midwest director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, where he worked with local civil rights and neighborhood organizations.
In 1969, Northwestern University invited him to return and help initiate the Center for Urban Affairs, a group of interdisciplinary faculty doing research designed to support urban change and progressive urban policy. McKnight’s appointment was an act of heroism on the part of the university, as it gave him a tenured professorship, though he had only a bachelor’s degree.
While at the Center and its successor, the Institute for Policy Research, McKnight and his colleague, Jody Kretzmann, focused their research on urban neighborhoods. The best-known result of this work was the formulation of an understanding of neighborhoods focused on the usefulness of local resources, capacities, and relationships. This work was documented in Building Communities from the Inside Out, describing an approach to community building that became a major development strategy practiced in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. It was during this time that McKnight was one of the trainers of Barack Obama as he learned the skills of community organizing.
McKnight is also the author of The Careless Society: Community and its Counterfeits, a classic critique of professionalized social services and a celebration of communities’ ability to heal themselves from within; The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods with Peter Block, an exploration of the riches in neighborhoods and small towns; and An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture with Peter Block and Walter Brueggemann, an exploration of the nature of community life outside the consumer society.
McKnight co-founded the Health & Medicine Policy Research Group with Dr. Quentin Young, co-founded The Gamaliel Foundation with Greg Galluzzo, and was a founding board member of National People’s Action led by Gale Cincotta.
Lover of jazz and of life, McKnight’s impact on civil rights and community empowerment in Chicago and throughout the world is profound, with a university transformed by his presence, endless numbers of students and activists endeavoring to carry out and extend his perspective and mission, and friends and colleagues whose lives have been deeply impacted by this extraordinary soul.
John is survived by his wife Marsha Barnett, his son Jonathon McKnight (Susan Regan) and his stepchildren Marc Barnett (Amy), Stuart Barnett (Miriam), Eric Barnett (Mary) and Scot Barnett. John was the proud grandfather to Emerson, Remington, Griffin, Elise, Lauren and Naomi, and loving uncle to Jennifer, Julie and Dan Hubert. He was predeceased by his son Scott.
To honor John’s memory, the family would appreciate a donation to any one of these organizations: Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance, International Crane Foundation, Baraboo Range Preservation Association, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Inc., The Nature Conservancy (directed to the Wisconsin chapter) or People’s Action.
His memorial will be a private celebration.
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