Desmond Tutu in Chicago

By Jess D'Amico in News on May 8, 2008 5:40PM

South Africa's Moral Conscience, archbishop Desmond Tutu, was in Chicago yesterday to speak about human dignity and help raise funds for Community Support Services, an organization for the developmentally disabled. He also posed for a photo op before the event with Chicago's finest, Barbara Daley and Michael Jordan's mother, Deloris. There's video of his speech here.

What's the cost to have the Nobel Peace Prize–winning humanitarian at your next event? Tutu's usual fee, which goes to his charity the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, is $125,000, but for this engagement Desmond's foundation only took $50,000, of the $150,000 raised for Community Support Services.

While Rev. Tutu's in town, he'll also receive the Lincoln Leadership Award at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library dinner May 13 at the Ritz-Carlton. Broadcaster Bill Kurtis will host and Oprah Winfrey will introduce and present the award, a creepy bronze cast of Lincoln's hand holding a sawed-off broomstick.

Our favorite Tutu quote: "A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons."