Greeting the South Side

On Monday, 19 July, we went to the South Side of Chicago with one of the city's official greeters. Chicago Greeter is a programme that brings together residents and visitors for a personalised, one-on-one tour of Chicago and of your selected neighbourhood. We were matched with Catherine Williams for our discovery walk, a 79-year old lady full of stamina and good humour; she took us by CTA bus (n°3) to visit Bronzeville and "Obamaland" (more about the latter in another post). It was interesting to be inside a bus where 99.9% of the people where black. It drives home the historically racially segregated nature of this city and how it still endures into the present time.

We visited the Harold Washington Cultural Center, which is right in the middle of what used to be a bustling area of Bronzeville; where all the nigh-clubs playing Blues and Jazz music used to be concentrated. Ironically, when "real estate racial segregation" ended, the clubs moved elsewhere in the city further contributing to the area's decline.

Harold Washington was the first and so far only black mayor of Chicago. He served from 1983 until 1987, the year of his death (stroke). He had been born and raised in Bronzeville. Somehow, I can't help thinking that he is one of those who paved the way for Obama's election as President. This also brings to mind the famous and controversial civil rights leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, another resident of Bronzeville, and the first black to run for presidential nomination inside the Democratic Party in 1984 and 1988. Jackson is controversial not just because of his early negative statements on Jews, but also more recently because of his criticism of Obama during the electoral campaign for acting like he was white. However, I remember seeing him crying on television (tears of joy and disbelief?) during Obama's victory speech in Grant Park, Chicago in 2009. Well, I cried too (tears of joy and disbelief). We passed by the headquarters of Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH project, aimed at fighting poverty and inequality, particularly among black Americans (an imposing Greek-revival church building).

Bronzeville's fascinating history deserves a few more paragraphs:

In the early 20th century, Bronzeville was known as the "Black Metropolis," one of the United State's most significant landmarks of African-American urban history. Between 1910 and 1920 (slavery was abolished in the US in 1865), during the peak of the so-called "Great Migration", the population of the area increased dramatically when thousands of African-Americans fled the oppression of the southern US states and emigrated to Chicago in search of industrial jobs and a better life. The name Bronzeville was first used in 1930, by James J. Gentry, a local theater editor for the Chicago Bee publication. It refers to the brown skin color of African-Americans, who predominated in that area.

Many famous people are associated with Bronzeville, including: Ida B. Wells, a fearless 19th century anti-lynching crusader, civil rights activist, journalist and organizer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot; Gwendolyn Brooks, famous author and first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, and Louis Armstrong, the legendary trumpet player and bandleader who performed at many of the area's night clubs. Bronzeville and its cultural "movida" was similar to what happened in New York City in the early decades of the 20th century with the so-called "Harlem Renaissance" (if you are not familiar with this very important black cultural movement in US history, you better check it out! I hope that at least the name of the poet Langston Hughes rings a bell...).

The neighborhood was from the 1920s to the 1940s one of the premiere centers of African-American culture and was fairly affluent and middle class. You can still see that today when walking around. Many of the houses are classic examples of early 20th century urban architecture, with beautifully carved front-door porches, and sculpted façades. They were owned by the many black professionals (e.g. lawyers, doctors, store owners) who lived in the area (they actually had no other alternative...). It is such a shame to see some of these beautiful residences all boarded up and left to rot. They would be prime real estate in any city worth that name!

The "Great Depression" hit the area hard, bankrupting black-owned businesses, but the neighborhood's worst enemy proved to be the neglectful and segregationist city government. Because black Chicagoans were restricted (unofficially) from renting and buying property outside of the so-called "Black Belt," rents were actually higher in the district's run-down, ill-maintained buildings, owned by white absentee landlords, than in the adjacent, wealthy, white neighborhoods.

In 1941, the city built the infamous and gigantic Ida B. Wells housing projects in Bronzeville, which produced devastating and unintended results. Because of segregation, many low-income African-Americans were unable to find housing anywhere else and the projects quickly became overcrowded, while crime and urban blight expanded throughout the neighborhood.

During the 1950s and 1960s, a decision was made to replace the "slums" with several straight miles of high-rise public housing projects, managed by the (corrupt) Chicago Housing Authority, essentially isolating and simultaneously concentrating the poor black population in this section of the city. The largest complex was Robert Taylor Homes. Now demolished, at one point the Robert Taylor Homes were considered the most violent and impoverished ghetto in the whole of the US (they even deserved a visit by President Bill Cliton in the early 1990's). Jarl and I have just read a new book, Gang Leader For A Day, by sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, that describes in detail the lives of people in the Robert Taylor Homes, focusing on the day-to-day "survival" strategies of the local population (from selling drugs to community organising, from hustling for a living to inter-generational solidarity). We recommend the book, even if at times it may strike you as slightly sensationalist.

Today, Bronzeville is seeing major community-driven revitalization efforts, mostly by wealthy and entrepreneurial African-Americans who value the neighborhood's historic importance. Historic clubs are reopening, and there are a handful of nice coffee shops and restaurants that have opened in recent years. As a rule, the revitalization efforts have not extended below 47th Street or west of the Dan Ryan Expressway into the Washington Park and Fuller Park neighborhoods, which remain very poor, with an extraordinary amount of vacant lots and the highest violent crime levels in the city.

(L)