PASTOR COREY BROOKS: My body can’t finish this walk, but our work for Chicago’s kids must go on

As I write this I am sitting still for the first time in a long time. I’ve been walking across America for nearly 200 days, and I must admit I’m dying to get back on the open road. I loved the walk; meeting new people, seeing the hidden corners of America and learning its stories.

However, the doctors made it clear that I could not walk anymore. When I had my first surgery to remove a painful growth from my heel called a pyogenic granuloma, I thought I was ready. But this growth came back with a vengeance from the same place and had to be eliminated again. Continuing to push would mean running the risk of seriously damaging my foot.

The road to Los Angeles, which begins in New York City on September 1, 2025, is a journey I will not finish walking. So many of you have walked every step of this with me in spirit and I am heartbroken.

I remember standing in Times Square the first day, looking at those skyscrapers and thinking about how people created this city from nothing. The people doing the construction often came from other countries and had far fewer resources. But they had creativity, willpower, and resilience, and I thought about how kids on the South Side should be raised in that same spirit. With dedication and courage anything is possible and the unshakable will never give up.

FROM THE ROOF OF CHICAGO TO A JOURNEY OF 3,000 MILES, THIS IS HOW I FIGHT TO RENEW THE SOUL OF AMERICA.

I put on my shoes and started walking.

What followed was one of the most extraordinary times of my life.

I am grateful beyond words for every dollar, for every prayer, for everyone who walked a leg of the city with me, shared a post, or did whatever they could.

I’ll never forget the time the Amish woman in Pennsylvania who opened her home to us rode in a horse and buggy. Or the pain I feel when I talk about God with drug addicts in Philly’s open-air drug markets. The broad spectrum of humanity I encountered showed me the best and worst of America, but what struck me was that even when things were bad, there was always hope, even when a drug addict told me God was no match for the blow. This hope is what made America what it is.

WHEN ADDICTIVES TURNED TRANQ IN PHILADELPHIA, I SEE WHY GOD HAS NOT GIVEN UP ON AMERICA YET

One of the most striking moments was when I found myself walking down the old slave trail in Richmond, Virginia, where Africans walked in chains toward the auction block. I felt the weight of ghosts and the presence of grace at the same time. I prayed. And as I left that mark, I had the feeling that many of our children were on a predetermined path to poverty and violence, and that was the path that needed to be destroyed.

I walked to small towns in the Deep South, to roadside restaurants and McDonald’s, and stopped to talk to strangers. Media people used to call them ordinary, but I discovered they were anything but that. Each was an individual with their own dreams, successes, failures and beliefs. None asked about party lines or protest labels. They talked about hope and faith. They talked about their children’s futures, feed prices, their churches and communities.

A man in Alabama told me about his son who had just gotten out of prison and was looking for a job. A grandmother in Mississippi told me that she was raising four grandchildren whose parents could not raise them. Somewhere in Louisiana a truck driver pulled over to give me a bottle of cold water and say, “Pastor, I’m praying for you.” He left before I could get his name. Moments like these never leave you.

MY WALKING IN AMERICA IS A LESSON IN GRATITUDE AND THANKS

All these months the blisters on my feet reminded me of the cost. But the conversations healed something much deeper. I kept thinking: We are not as divided as they want us to believe. Elites and politicians earn their living by manufacturing dissent and conflict among us. But I found something different on those roads. I found an America that still works.

Then, on day 191, I found myself in a hospital examination room. Doctors told me the growth had returned. The first surgery did not take place. They planned a second surgery. I sat in that room silently for a long time, thinking about Times Square and the thousands of miles ahead of me. I wrote that I was emotionally broken that night. That was the truth. I spent all my financial, spiritual and emotional reserves on this path. I did it all to help kids on the South Side have a better life. There was nothing left in the tank that I had put in it.

After the second surgery, the decision was final: Physical walking was over. My body absolutely does not allow this.

I’ve Seen the Bodies on My Block – AND I KNOW WHAT REALLY STOP THE KILLING

We’ve come this far. We raised just over $4 million for the Center for Leadership and Economic Opportunity on Chicago’s South Side; There’s a 90,000-square-foot facility here that will house job training, mentoring, schooling and more for young people who have never had anything like it in their own neighborhoods. Our goal has always been simple: To put opportunity within reach of every child. It is up to them to take advantage of this and we will support them when they seize this initiative.

I am grateful beyond words for every dollar, for every prayer, for everyone who walked a leg of the city with me, shared a post, or did whatever they could.

But we set out to raise 25 million dollars. And we still have shortcomings.

A BOLD MOVE TO SAVE CHICAGO’S YOUTH FROM LEFT-ADDICTION

Kids on the South Side don’t have a pause button because of the circumstances they’re born into. As long as I get better, the need doesn’t go away.

Here’s what I learned from this path and from sitting with the weight of what it cost me: Real actions are never dependent on one person. Whether they were Amish women, drug addicts or truck drivers, they all had in common that they received help from their American friends. This is what gives America its greatness. I know this is true.

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When I was on the roof in 2011, freezing through a Chicago winter to raise money to tear down a crime-ridden motel—the same place where we’re building today’s community center—people asked me how I could stand it. But I never lost my faith. I could endure the cold and the pressure because I knew I was not alone. And it wasn’t me. We raised enough money to buy that motel and tear it down. Now we have an emerging probability and opportunity structure at the same point.

So even though my body can’t keep walking, my soul refuses to give up. I know that my duty is not my walk. The task is children. The mission is the center. The mission is what happens when a young man from O-Block, once the most violent block in the country, discovers that his life has direction and value and that someone is showing up for him.

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So I ask you to join me on this mission. We all want a better America. We don’t have all the answers. But we know there must be opportunities for everyone. We know that everyone deserves an equal chance at the American dream. The rest is up to them. But we need to create this equality of opportunity.

So, although I cannot walk, I hope you will join me in this difficult work to reverse the damage done to our societies by post-60s liberalism. I hope you will join us in giving meaning and opportunity to the lives of these young people born in this zip code. And I hope you know that you are more important than you think and that we need you to build a better America.

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