Black history Archives - Page 3 of 4

OJ and the lynched effigy

I was inspired to write this post by an article in the Guardian by @NatalieYMoore, Chicago’s South Side reporter for WBEZ. ("Don't let Simpson Blind us to Black Victims of Injustice.") Last week the focus was on OJ’s parole from prison for the 2008 sports memorabilia robbery. After serving nine years, he’ll probably be released early, from his thirty-three year sentence, in October. It took me back to another October–twenty-two years ago, 1995, when a jury acquitted OJ of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman. The media were all over the story: Most blacks cheering; most whites were outraged.

Linda Gartz2020-10-05T16:41:51-05:00July 27th, 2017|Black history, Chicago, Chicago: A View Over Time|

An Era of Riots – 50 years ago

Two of the nation’s deadliest riots exploded 50 years ago–in July 1967, within two weeks of each other. July 11th 1967, The Newark Riots blew up on an early Sunday morning, after a cab driver was brutally beaten by Newark police. After four days of rioting, looting, and destruction, 26 were dead and hundreds injured. On July 23rd, 1967, Detroit erupted in a riot triggered by a police raid of an unlicensed after-hours bar, where 82 African Americans were celebrating the return of two local GIs from the Vietnam War.

Linda Gartz2020-10-05T16:41:52-05:00July 13th, 2017|Black history, Chicago, Chicago West Side, Chicago: A View Over Time, Civil Rights Movement, family history|

“…threatened with Negro Encroachment.”

“…district threatened with Negro encroachment” is a direct quote from the portion shown here of a 1940 map of Chicago area neighborhoods, illustrating the color grade given to various areas by the New Deal’s creation, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC).

Linda Gartz2020-10-05T16:41:52-05:00June 29th, 2017|Ancestors, Black history, Chicago: A View Over Time, family history, memoir, Race, Racial change, Redlining|

Discovery in attic: long-hidden letters & diaries

Standing under naked beams in the attic’s dim light, we discovered a large box labelled in my mother’s neat printing: “Lil and Fred’s Letters and Diaries.” I ripped off the packing tape and folded back four cardboard flaps. A misty spray of dust and the odor of old paper wafted up....

Linda Gartz2020-10-05T16:41:52-05:00June 22nd, 2017|Black history, Chicago: A View Over Time, family history, romance|

“Would you panic if a Negro moved next door?” Sat. Evening Post

In July 1962, a few months after I graduated from grade school and one year before the first black family moved onto our block, The Saturday Evening Post, a venerable magazine of the time, ran an article entitled, "Confessions of a Blockbuster." I highly recommend it to understand how insidious racist lending policies, exploited by real estate predators, undermined the housing dreams of both black and white families.

Linda Gartz2020-10-05T16:41:53-05:00June 8th, 2017|Black history, Chicago: A View Over Time, family history, memoir, Racial change, Redlining|