Judge Mikva Has High Hopes for the Antipoverty Movement

Although the last major American campaign against poverty began in the 1960s, and many of those initiatives and ideals had changed over the years, the Honorable Abner Mikva said that America learned an important lesson. Speaking before a group of young professionals invited by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law last month, Judge Mikva said that the War on Poverty’s greatest success was that the American people chose to take responsibility for the poverty among them. Now that the horror of Hurricane Katrina had again turned the national attention to poverty, he hoped that this would mark the next turning point in the antipoverty movement.

Judge Mikva also spoke of his experience as an attorney and his relationship with the Shriver Center. The work of the Shriver Center continues to amplify and honor visionaries such as its founder, Sargent Shriver, he said.

More than sixty people from law firms and businesses from the Chicago metropolitan area attended the cocktail party fund-raiser, held by the Shriver Center’s associate board at Lake Point Tower in Chicago. Thanks to in-kind and financial support from Lake Point Tower, the associate board members’ law firms, and the event’s guests, the associate board collected over $2,500 for the Shriver Center.

The associate board members are Anne Duprey (chairwoman), Laura Duprey, Shauna Fulbright, Sarah Garner, Eric Halverson, John deMoulpied, Allyson Paflas, Bill Robison, Melissa Skilken, Max Stein, John Thurmond, and Adriana Weber.