Sources and Method
There are many challenges in presenting this work to my junior high students, and for me this means that I need concrete and engaging information and procedures to present this content respectfully and thoroughly. The printed sources I used for contextual information on public-housing in Chicago were from the texts such as Chicago: Race, Class, and the Response to Urban Decline by Gregory D. Squires, Larry Bennett, Kathleen McCourt, and Philip Nyden (1987), The Man-Made City: The Land-Use Confidence Game in Chicago by Gerald D. Suttles (1990), and The Hidden War: Crime and the Tragedy of Public Housing in Chicago by Susan J. Popkin, Victoria E. Gwiasda, Lynn M. Olson, Dennis P. Rosenbaum, and Larry Buron (2000).
When I began reading about the context of Chicago's city planning in relation to public housing, I quickly focused attention on Chicago Housing Authority, the social organization that relays and puts social policy into place here in "The Windy City". To get a real feel of the Ickes' environment, students should understand the people. In the Ickes, there were the roles/perspectives of the enforcer of rules (resident-leader of each hallway), seniors, taggers and neutrons (non-gang affiliated drug dealers), animals (roaches, rodents, stray dogs), children of the hallway (feral kids), abused (mainly women being publicly beaten by boyfriends and husbands), janitors (all crew including some security), and activists (the 5-6 residents going to meetings and standing up to gang leaders/city officials). Then we have the names/labels of people and organizations affiliated with Ickes: women activists (Olivia, India, Shirelle, Marsha, Betty, Geraldine, Sondra, Tondi, Rakiah, Carol, Tenille, Louella, Fran), HUD (Housing and Urban Development office for the nation), CHA (Chicago Housing Authority in charge of all public housing decision relaying), Harold Ickes, LAC (local advisory committee of residents), CAC (central advisory committee of residents and members of CHA and the city), and The Disciples (the first and main gang in the area, one of three gangs, but the largest group).
Beyond the people, students must understand the feel, or ambience, of the land. The Ickes was part of the State Street Corridor, the miles of public housing units along State Street on the Southside of Chicago. Weather, dealers' areas and schedules, tenant screening offices, and the "terror zone" 4 of the north end (Ickes Towers at 2200 State Street) all speak to the plan, the space. Events such as lights being knocked out to fuel darkness for crime, apartment vacancies beginning in 1998, and the Student Assistance Program facilitation tell the once-hidden story of Ickes residents. The Hidden War presents a lot of rhetoric about rigid rules, wildness, and community members choosing to mind their own business. 5
The residents' oral histories, interviews with Audrey Johnson and John Pointer, tell eloquent stories of real people fighting for dignity. I was assisted in the art of interviewing by a University of Chicago doctoral student in Sociology, Cayce Hughes. I asked Audrey the following questions: How did you meet your husband? How did you grow up? What was the Ickes to you? What friends do you still hang with from Ickes and why? Did everyone in the community attend Quinn Chapel (historic church two blocks from Ickes with the same pastor for 35 years) and what is the church influence like? What are one comedy and one tragedy that stick out in your mind from Ickes? I asked JP these questions: What was your childhood like? What was the Ickes like? Do you have specific memories of the space and what were they? Who really ruled the Ickes and why? What businesses did people in the community go to and why? Are there any businesses still around and which ones? What type of service people frequented the Ickes and who had relationships with members of the community? What comedies and tragedies stand out in your mind that happened in the Ickes?
I came to ask the questions above out of personal interest and after a lot of thought about what questions would draw stories out of my subjects. This is something that will be taught in lessons with my students as a way to connect sociology (junior high content areas of Reading and Social Studies) and art. The comedy and tragedy question overlapped so did the questions about growing up and what the Ickes was to each of my subjects. JP was not really able to answer the comedy question. He just talked about how so many funny things happened and people just being comedic; he enjoys being made to laugh. His tragedy had to do with a young girl who was shot and killed in the halls of the Ickes while she was holding a baby in her arms. She was caught in crossfire. Audrey's comedy tells the story of her and one other friend beat the "Reej", Omar, the leader of the gang, in a fight after winning against fifty of his gang members. The fight as she described it had so much emotion, "crying and fighting". Her tragedy happened just after the comedy. Her stepfather was killed in the apartment just above theirs when she was fourteen. Her mother moved them out of the Ickes Towers after that, but they remained in the general area. The purpose of the comedy and tragedy question was to draw theatrical stories out of my subjects to engage my students. "The Fight", Audrey's comedy, has become the heart of this unit.
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