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For African-Americans, struggle and some gains

Eighty years after the Great Migration from the South end nearly a decade after the 1987 death of Chicago's first black mayor, Chicago's
African-American community is moving in many directions, separated by class and political division.

Most of Chicago's African-Americans live in all-black conununities, many hard-hit by decades of poverty. Yet with a metro-area population of 1.4 million
and fast-growing suburban populations, the black community is more disparate and different than ever before. From el trains and sidewalks to suburban
subdivisions, the range takes in staff of Ebony Magazine, bankers, superstars Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey, homeowners from South Side
Chatham to north suburban Evanston, Gangster Disciples gang members, public housing tenant leaders, entrepreneurs and blue-collar workers.

Until World War I, the community was packed into a South Side strip known as Bronzeville or the Black Belt, but when its population expoded
mid-century, it pushed into previously all-white neighborhoods, often as panicked residents moved out. Segregation, civic neglect and the decline of
nearby industrial jobs took a toll on many West and South Side areas; hundreds of thousands of middle- and working-class blacks moved out of the
ghetto, leaving todely's patchwork of intensely poor areas alongside more stable areas.

POLITICAL RISE AND FALL COMMUNITY LIFE

Black politics has changed enormously since the days
when neighborhood boss Bill Dawson delivered votes for
the white-run Democratic Machine. An independent
grassroots movement culminated in 1983 election of
Harold Washington as city's first black mayor.
Washington spent much of his first term fighting with white
opponents in City Council; he consolidated power after
1987 reelection but died without appointing a successor.
Ensuing political fray tore apart the coalition of blacks,
Latinos and liberal whites, leaving community with
persistent divisions, no agenda.
Congressman Bobby Rush, 773-224-6500, was a
Black Panther and community activist before becoming
alderman, then U.S, representative; is advocate for public
housing residents and reirvestment in low-income areas.
Cook County commissioner and Congressional candidate
Danny Davis, 312-443-4566, was a West Side
Washington ally in City CounciL can offer historical
perspective. Richard Barnett, 773-277-7833, is West
Side activist and school council member who helped
convince Harold Washington to run for mayor. Timuel
Black, 773-373-3972, .is educator, historian and
decades-long veteran of political campaigns, now a fellow
at DePaul's Egan Center.
Founded in 1971, Operation PUSH evolved into potent
political organization; has lost some of its might but is
rebuilding under leadership of Rev. Jesse Jackson and
board chairwoman Rev. Willie Barrow,
773-373-3366. Jesse Jackson Jr., 202-225-0899,
was elected in December to U.S. House seat, 2nd
District, on strength of black vote in south suburbs;
promises support of proposed third airport in Peotone.
The Chicago Reporter has been tracking trends in race,
Segregated physically and
emotionally from other Chicagoans,
blacks created institutions as
backbones of community life. From
early migrant support groups and
churches grew political and cultural
organizations, plus a musical
tradition so powerful that Langston
Hughes - describing the South State
Street "Stroll" in 1918 - proclaimed
that ff you held a trumpet up at night
it would play itself, such was the
activity at the jazz clubs.
Many churches have played dual
role of spiritual anchor and center of
activism. Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
Trinity Church, 773-962-5650, is
active on Southern Africa struggles,
supports linking local and
international issues. Rev. Clay
Evans, Fellowship Baptist Church,
773-924-3732, was once the only
major church to welcome Dr.
Martin Luther King to Chicago
during civil rights movement. Rev.
Al Sampson, 773-445-7125,
works on the Million Man March
Metropolitan Area Planning Corp.,
maintaining networks developed
during the Washington, D.C. march.
Mass migration from the South
prompted creation of support
groups that today have a
family-reunion flavor: ViEthel

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poverty and political power since 1972; editor and Wills, 773-224-8758, rallies
publisher is Laura Washington, 312-427-4830. old-timers in the Greenville
(Mississippi) Club; Grace Bowers ,
MAKING A LIVING 773-533-9435, runs the Mississippi
Culture Club. More issue-oriented
Blacks were often last hired and first fired - at bottom of
are legal and other support groups
Chicago's economic ladder. Tune and persistence have
such as the African-American
helped a core gain middle- or upper-income status, but
Patrolman's League, working on
lack of education and capital mean many still toil at low
racial bias issues in the police
pay - or remain unemployed.
department, Patricia Hill,
Hard labor in steel mills and packing houses - or 773-779-8226. Attorney James
domestic work for women - was the economic entry Chapman of the Prison Action
point for most Chicago blacks. They became a key Committee, 312-408-0330, focuses
constituent in the labor movement, rising to leadership on prison reforms through
positions. Charles Hayes, 773-783-6209, was a vp in advocacy, education and legislation.
United Packinghouse Workers and later a U.S. Linda Mills, 8CO-602-5640, is an
Congressman, always a voice for the working poor. The attorney and lobbyist working on
late Jacqueline Vaughn was president of Chicago poverty issues.
Teachers Union. Eric Amesen at University of Illinois at
Cultural maven Dr. Margaret
Chicago, 312-996-7648, is an expert on blacks in the
Burroughs, 773-947-0600, is
labor movement.
founder of DuSable Museum of
Government jobs played key role in development of African American History and
black middle class, starting with federal jobs and long-time supporter of black
spreading into city and state, plus agencies such as Chicago artists. Willie Dixon,
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Board of Education. 773-846-0837, is radio host and
Former City Hall official Valerie Jarrett, keeper of much oral history of the
312-527-5400, can comment on black role in black community. Archie Motley,
government; she is now chair of CTA and vice president 312-642-4600, is son of famous
of Habitat Co., private developer that oversees Chicago black painter and curator at the
Housing Authority scattered site program. Chicago Historical Society.

MEET & EAT

Entrepreneurship thrived in the Black Belt as neighbors
served neighbors in the trades, retail, insurance and other
1. Edna's: 3175 W. Madison,
industries. That tradition faltered somewhat as
312-638-7079. Former
business-minded blacks joined corporate America and
hangout for civil rights
inner-city retailing became dominated by immigrants.
workers on West Side; great
Chicago has proven fertile for a small cadre of black
peach cobbler.
entrepreneurs. Consuelo Pope , president and CEO of
the Cosmopolitan Chamber of Commerce, 2. Glady's Luncheonette:
312-786-0212, focuses on building business networks 4527 S. Indiana,
among entrepreneurs. Paul King, 312-939-0505, 312-548-4566. Stone's
chairman of city's largest black-owned construction firm, throw from Robert Taylor
UBM Inc., wrote recent piece in Chicago Tribune about Homes, has attended
need for businesses and institutions to mentor young parking, is frequented by City
black men, as his firm has done. Princeton University Council members.
graduate John Rogers , 312-726-0140, founded mutual
fund firm Ariel Capital Management in 1983, is now 3. Soul Queen No. 2: 9031 S.
president of Chicago Park District, overseeing major Stony Island, 312-731-3366.
effort to boost use of parks citywide. Offers 24-hour buffet of
Southern-style food.
Historian and businessman Dempsey Travis,
773-994-7200, builds new housing for middle-class 4. Army and Lou's: 422 E.
blacks when not writing books about music and Chicago 75th St., 312-483-3100.
politics. Buyers of his homes in solid South Side Was favorite of Mayor
neighborhoods include many who have risen through Harold Washington; has great
corporate ranks, a population tracked by sociology jukebox.
professor Sharon M. Collins at University of Illinois at
Chicago, 312-996-2274. Collins interviewed 76 Chicago 5. Soul Vegetarian East 203
executives at the director level and above in 1986 and E. 75th St., 312-224-0104.
again in 1990s, finding .stagnatiorv and frustrations that Features a gift shop and is
spurred some to create their oayn businesses. Another close to the Dan Ryan

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UIC expert, Cedrick Herring, 312-413-0296, recently

convened black intellectuals to discuss the state of black
America; he can provide a broad perspective And Expressway.
additional sources, as can Barbara Ransby of DePaul
University's African-American studies department,
773-325-7512.

ORGANIZING AND ISLAM

Organizing in neighborhoods has taken two paths that reflect historic dichotomy between integrationist and nationalist strategies. Many top conununity
leaders collaborate on urban issues through city's grasgroots network, forging multi-racial coalitions, while others take black nationalist approach, looking
only within the African-American community for leadership and resources.

In first category are Ani Russell of community policing network, 312-461-0444; Jacky Grimshaw, former strategist for Harold Washington now
working an community transportation issues; 773-278-4800, ext. 133; and Barack Obama, 773-684-4809, whose work to empower blacks has
included his law practice, community organizing, philanthropy and most recently electoral politics: he is a candidate for state senate. A quiet leader with
broad vision of empowerment and redevelopment in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood is Sokoni Karanja, 773-373-5700, whose nonprofit Centers
for New Horizons provides social services, youth programs, education and child care.

Chicago is national center of black nationalist thought and organization. Head of the nation's largest secular black-nationalist organization, the National
Black United Front, Conrad Worrill, 773-268-5658, is a professor at Northeastern Illinois University's Center for Inner City Studies and was prominent
speaker at last year's Million Man Man March. Another Northeastern professor, Robert Starks, 773-268-7500, heads local Task Force for Political
Empowerment, along with Worrill was major organizer in Harold Washington campaigns. Radio commentator and former newspaper columnist and
publisher, Lu Palmer, 773-624-0242, holds forth two nights a week on a WVON-1450AM political talk show. He founded the Black Independent
Political Orgization and Chicago Black United Communities. Eddie Read, 773-663-0704, is president of both organizations mentioned above; CBUC
members have shut down construction sites where blacks don't get fair share of jobs. Salim Muwakkil, 773-643-3730, is senior editor of In These
Times and contributing columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. He has done extensive coverage of black activism and the black nationalist movement.

Chicago is home base for African-American Muslim organizations. Muslims have been visible forces for organizing and stability in many neighborhoods,
only some of them aligned with controversial leader Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam. Organizer Kublai Toure, 773-538-7217, is a member of
Jim Brown's Amer-I-Can youth organization, with projects ranging from helping arrange gang traces to trips to Chicago Cubs baseball Sitines for public
housing youth. Mikail Bilal, 773-721-6588, is chek of the Muslim addiction-prevention group Millati Wami, with twice-weekly meetings on South
Drexel St. for recovering substance abusers. Abdul Rashid Akbar is the Muslim chaplin at Cook County jail, 773-721-6588, where many incarcerated
African-Americans convert to Islam. The Nation of Islam's contact point for the media and editor-chief of The Final Call newspaper is James
Muhammad, 773-602-1230. Ayesha Mustafaa reports on the larger Muslim community as editor of The Muslim Journal, 312-243-7600.

COPYRIGHT 2001. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 312-344-6400.

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