The Chicago Project

 Chicago Trip

“What helps people and communities in the inner-city move from poverty to prosperity?”  

Arriving in North Lawndale

We arrived in North Lawndale Tuesday night in late April.  The “inner-city” image was coming into focus for most of us, and that picture was quite different from the snapshot our upbringing had provided.  We did not see many prostitutes, gangs, or much graffiti on the buildings. Rather, it was an area of abandoned buildings, vacant lots, trash-littered streets interrupted with storefront churches, relief organizations, and people busy with activity.  

“I saw a lot of glass crushed on the ground, which made me start to feel unsafe…I noticed all of the abandoned buildings, which started to make me wonder and think about what used to be there.I was really wondering how the people feel about their community."

Nikki Melvin, 2006 Participant  

"If I had to live here I would be afraid all the time!Staying in this apartment for the 10 minutes we’ve been here makes me appreciate what I have…”

Christi Dalton, 2006 Participant

Tour of North Lawndale

People think that the residents of inner-city areas are there solely by choice.  However, people born and raised in this community face significant challenges that restrain their hopes of economic advancement.    The average value of a house in North Lawndale is $67,000 (and is in need of significant and costly repair) which is less than half the average house value in Chicago.  The average income is $23,000 a year.  By the 1970’s all the major industries such as Sears, International Harvester, and Sherwin Williams Paint that had sustained these communities during the eras of massive immigrant migration moved out into the suburbs (about 75,000), gutting it of living wage jobs.

However, significant changes are occurring in the community.  We learned that North Lawndale is in the process of regentrification, raising the value of property, but also the cost of rent.  With no large-scale plan to help residents in the community move from renting to owning, nearly all will be shut out of the wealth generation going on around them.  Rather the circumstances of being raised here contribute to current residents being forced to relocate to another economically and socially costly community.

Operation P.U.S.H.

Operation P.U.S.H. was founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson under the direction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in hopes to make “liberty and justice for all” a reality.  Prior to the death of Reverend King, he told Jackson to start an organization to fight for the rights and economic needs of African Americans and all Americans in the North.  The organization continues to fulfill this mission through addressing issues of economic opportunity, political empowerment, trade and foreign policy, the justice system, election law reform, educational access, employee rights, and livable wages.  As we were leaving the headquarters, Reverend Jackson happened be going to an appointment and took time for a picture with our students.

“I had no idea that they did so much to help—like the radio and the phones and rallies.And meeting Jesse Jackson was awesome.He touched my shoulder.”

Ben Davis, 2006 Participant

Discussion with Officer Pat Hill

Army and Lou’s is an upscale soul food restaurant on the south side of Chicago that caters to the city’s politicians, entrepreneurs, and artists. We met with Ms. Pat Hill, Chicago Police Officer and Executive Director of the National African American Police League, to discuss issues of policing in inner-city communities.  Her experience is that many officers in North Lawndale believe that there is nothing good in that community and that everyone is a criminal.  She discussed concerns of  police corruption such as planting evidence, racial profiling, and “us verse them” attitudes.  She described practices of some officers of planting drugs on people they believe were guilty, thinking that they probably did something illegal in the past anyway and just did not get caught. 

“Police corruption in the ghetto does exist…This corruption hurts the community because the community works together.When one person is arrested, it hurts a whole family, and a family hurt can also hurt a community…”

Lauren McIntosh, 2006 Participant

“It does indeed exist and with a police officer herself relating to us examples of the corruption, not conforming to code and procedure, brutality, and further examples of injustice are prominent in [minority]  communities.”

King, 2006 Participant