We The People Media Executive Director Ethan Michaeli appeared recently on CAN TV’s “Chicago Newsroom,” with guest host and WBEZ reporter Natalie Moore as well as Britt Julious, WBEZ blogger, and Achy Obejas, an award-winning author and also a WBEZ blogger. They discussed the state of public housing and Chicago’s neglected neighborhoods.

Click here to watch.

Alicia Jacobs and a fellow resident of the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the South Side pose during a successful protest of a local food store. Photo by Alicia Jacobs.

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program, which is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

This is a story of a protest that helped a community. Could you imagine being outside for more than nine hours a day in dangerously cold temperatures, standing up and fighting for a change? Could you be a part of a boycott, just like your older relatives have done in the civil rights days?

Occupy Altgeld is a group of concerned residents who live in the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the far South Side who decided to address problems that many residents saw but couldn’t seem to change on their own. These residents felt the food prices of Rosebud Farm were too high. Rosebud Farm is the only grocery store in the area surrounding Altgeld where residents can purchase food.

At the first few meetings of Occupy Altgeld, the residents voiced their concerns and the prices of Rosebud farm was the main topic. So, Marguerite Jacobs (who also happens to be my mother) and Cheryl Johnson, a community activist and resident, sought to organize a boycott and make Rosebud Farm lower its prices and make other improvements.

Last November, men and women of Occupy Altgeld boycotted Rosebud farms for five effective days for 10 hours a day. Occupy Altgeld turned away 410 cars and 50 people walking in the store. They boycotted Rosebud Farm because the store didn’t accept WIC but does accept Link. Rosebud didn’t support the community programs and didn’t hire locally. They didn’t pay livable income for their workers, didn’t hire residents with CDL licenses and their ATM machine did not accept unemployment benefits debit cards.

Leona Williams, a 35-year-old resident of Altgeld, told me, “For this to be the only store in the community, it seems to be a disadvantage to the community.”

Marguerite Jacobs explained why she helped organize the protest. “I’m tired of the Farm taking our money, gauging there prices, and having no respect. I’m tired of hearing residents talk about it, so I took the liberty to stand up for my community.”

For those five days, Occupy Altgeld took customers to any store of their choice, as long as they didn’t purchase anything from Rosebud Farm. April Fields, a 31-year-old resident of Altgeld, said, “Occupy Altgeld took the liberty to do what the community wanted to do.”

Cheryl Johnson added, “Rosebud Farm has been in the community for 57 years and we helped this business to become one of the largest distributors of poultry in the Midwest. We helped make them what they are today.”

And guess what? The protest worked!

Here is the statement from Carlos Bruce, manager and decision maker at Rosebud Farm: “On November 16, Occupy Altgeld and Rosebud Farm came to a mutual agreement to lowering the prices, accepting WIC, hiring residents with CDL licenses, and to supporting community events and holiday activities.”

Who knew that boycotting for just five days could make a difference that will help the community in the future?

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program, which is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

People take off their clothes and paint their bodies in the freezing cold just to show their loyalty to their team. This is football. I can’t believe how many people are so loyal to their teams. I love football and I play football but I would not do all of that. It seems to me that football is our country’s most popular sport, based on how many people talk about it.

I interviewed students and teachers at Robeson High School about their views on football.

Amber M. Stoker is a 24-year-old City Year staffer at Robeson. She loves football because of the physical contact and her favorite team is the Chicago Bears. She has never been to an NFL game but she’s been to high school games. Even though she likes the sport, she knows that injuries are a serious problem. She knew someone who had a football scholarship to college but it was messed up because of an injury.

Dwayne J. Branson, 24, is also a City Year staffer from Chicago. He loves football because he bonds with his family while he’s watching. His favorite team is the Green Bay Packers. He went to one of their games at a young age and didn’t understand it but still had fun. He’s also been to several high school teams. Like Stoker, he knows that injuries are a problem that can “bring a team down.”

Spencer W. Hendrikson is a 23-year-old City Year staffer from Chicago. He likes football but likes baseball more. The Bears are his favorite team. He’s only been to one game, at a young age, and he’s known people who played football when he was in the Boy Scouts and also his gym teacher. He thinks the game is often “too violent” and “people don’t take care” to avoid injuries.

Dane M. Harken, 23, from Tucson is another City Year staffer. He likes playing football but he thinks watching football is boring. He likes soccer better. He said injuries are “scary” and can cause brain damage later in life. He thinks better helmets should be mandatory. He’s been to high school and college games, though never an NFL game. He actually knew NFL star player Lance Briggs.

City Year staffer Susan R. Liv, 23, from Naperville thinks “football is exciting” but mostly she just watches the Super Bowl. She enjoys other people’s excitement and sees it as a cultural event. “I think it’s a rough sport…when someone gets injured it affects the whole team…and (injuries) are common,” she said. She also doesn’t like how much down time is in the game.

Robeson student Reginald Jenkins, 15, thinks “football is interesting because people get their bones broken.” He has never played or been to a football game but he’d like to play.

Robeson student Jarimah Dilworth said he likes “football because of the physical contact.” He played himself in the past but doesn’t want to continue. He likes the Bears because they are his home team. His favorite player is Brian Urlacher of the Bears.

The common themes of my interviews are that people are loyal to their home teams and many people, even those who are fans, think the game is too violent. Ultimately, many people feel like they can’t live without football. I know I can’t!

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program, which is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

Bullying. Why is it treated as a tragedy only when it results in death? Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. But it seems like that’s what it takes for people to open their eyes to the consequences of bullying. We should stay on top of this issue even when it doesn’t result in suicide. We shouldn’t let it fade away and only come back when someone commits suicide – saying “now it’s a big issue.” Wrong! It’s a big issue when the kid is feeling alone. it’s a big issue when the kid fears coming to school because of bullying and it is a big issue when the thought of suicide crosses a child’s mind.

Bullying caused one of this nation’s greatest tragedies: The shooting at Columbine High School reportedly happened because the two shooters were bullied. The shooters said they had been bullied for four years of their life. They were called names, pushed around and isolated. They couldn’t take it anymore.
There are basically three forms of bullying: the physical act including hitting, kicking and pushing; verbal bullying, meaning using words to tear people down. And then there is cyber-bullying – picking on people via the internet.
I interviewed several Robeson students about their experiences with bullying. Reginald L. Jenkins, 15, said he was bulled in third grade. He said he has bullied people himself too. “I don’t really know why,” he said. He feels that bullying is “awful.” “People who bully people should be arrested,” he said.
Jamie Nichols, 15, has also been bullied and also bullied someone else – because he wanted to impress a girl in fifth grade. He’s changed since then and he’s more quiet now, he said. He “changed because what goes around comes around….You’re going to get what you dish out.”
“If you bully someone it could happen to you,” Nichols added.
I also interviewed journalism instructor Kari Lydersen, 37. She doesn’t think she was ever bullied and she said people were less aware of bullying when she was a kid. She said she did bully someone once because she wanted to impress other girls. It made her more aware of how people feel and how words can be hurtful. She said she thinks bullying is a really serious problem than can cause life-long effects for people and should be taken more seriously. “It’s good teachers and students are becoming more aware of bullying and treating it as a serious problem,” she said.
Lauren Berry, 24, a City Year staffer at Robeson, said she got bullied in school and she also was a bully sometimes. She said it made her feel self-conscious about the way she looked and the way she dressed. She said she didn’t see herself as really bullying, but joining in when kids were teasing another kid.
“I see bullying going on every single day at Robeson,” Berry said. “Sometimes it’s physical but more often it’s verbal. I think that it is a huge issue that needs to be addressed.”
Why is it that when someone gets bullied their cries for help go unheard? But when that person is on his last leg, ready to end it and does, then it is a tragedy? Where was everyone when the person was alone and needed a hand? In my personal opinion, it makes me sick when people only pay attention to someone when they commit suicide. We should be there before the fact, not after.
I myself was bullied from sixth grade through the first half of ninth grade. I suffered jokes about my weight and how ugly people said I was. I survived it and I think overall it made me a better person, a bit more down to earth and an all-around good guy. But I feel as if bullying should stop! And it’s going to take everyone to make that happen.
About 280,000 students are physically attacked in secondary school each month, according to an anti-bullying website maintained by the law firm Buckner & Buckner. On average, 30 percent of kids get bullied. More than 1,000 kids get bullied each year and end up committing suicide, according to Bing.com. Canadian Amanda Michelle Todd was 15 and she committed suicide because she was being bullied every day.
It’s sad that she thought she had to do this just to get peace. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year. 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide and almost seven percent have attempted suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I want to eradicate bullying from the face of the earth. I get frustrated by those who are bullies and by those who excuse bullying by saying “boys will be boys,” or “girls will be girls” or “kids will be kids.”

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program, which is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

How is it really at Robeson High School in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side? A lot of people misjudge Robeson because of what they see on the news. Many people might think all Robeson students don’t know anything and fight every day. But what they don’t know is that many kids in Robeson have great talents and are very smart. I currently attend Robeson and it’s very different than what people say. I interviewed some Robeson students to give a fuller picture of the student body, their views on the school, and the violence that is an issue in Englewood.

Shanika Chavis is a freshman who works after school and likes to “goof off with friends.” She said there are not too many gangs at Robeson. She wants to be a teacher because she likes to help people. She said the school “is interesting because you learn different things and you can use them later on in life.” She thinks gangbanging is “stupid and makes no sense.” There are “wild students” at Robeson but added that “if they were more focused on their work they could be better students.” She thinks the school could change for the better if people were “more focused on the kids instead of their behavior.”

Jamie Nichols is a freshman who plays on the football team and gets good grades. He said there is “ignorance and violence” at the school. He wants to be a professional football player and then a lawyer, and he wants to attend Michigan State University. He said, “It’s retarded to gang bang.” He thinks the school could improve but he thinks a lot of people have already “given up on the school.”

Reginald Jenkins is a freshman who said he doesn’t really feel safe traveling to and from school because there are “too many gangs.” He doesn’t know what he wants to do as a career but he wants to attend UCLA for college. He thinks school is “interesting” and could be better with fewer gangs. He thinks Robeson should be remodeled. But he doesn’t really ever expect to see big changes.

Jarimah Dilworth is a freshman who likes to crack jokes. As a career, he wants to do a lot of things, including “being rich and famous.” He also wants to go to UCLA for college. He thinks Robeson could change for the better but “it’s going to take a lot of work. We don’t put the effort to do it.”

Mr. Anthony Warren is an attendance coordinator on staff at Robeson. He likes Robeson and thinks students could change their outlooks for the better. “It’s all about mindset and attitude,” he said. He thinks Robeson has not been remodeled yet because of the neighborhood it’s in and its academic rank. He does feel safe at Robeson and he does think students are learning. “If you want something you are going to get it,” he said. But he added, “Parents need to be there” for their children.

Jameeka Leaster is a freshmen who also attends Robeson. She says that her experience was good at first, “until I saw the real Robeson.” She says she doesn’t want to attend the school next year because she is moving to Harvey, Illinois. She likes the journalism program and hanging out with City Year in school. Leaster says that the gangs are unnecessary, “The students are too young to be getting themselves into such dangerous situations.” She doesn’t know what college she wants to attend but she knows she wants to finish high school and be a veterinarian. Leaster thinks that the violence and gangs will just get worse in the future.

Personally, I think that the violence and gangs will never stop but I think that it can be reduced. If kids and teenagers had more opportunities, they would do better at Robeson. A lot of people look past our school because of what they see on the news or what they hear. Robeson is not what everybody thinks it is. There are a lot of kids in here with special talents but they don’t show them because they don’t have enough supportive influences to help them. So please don’t judge our school if you are not actually a student or teacher here. There is more to Robeson than you think.

Anti-fracking activists in Boulder, Colo., during a recent protest. Photo by Kari Lydersen.

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Eco Youth Reporters program, conducted in conjunction with award-winning journalist Kari Lydersen and Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. The Eco Youth Reporters program is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation:

The Illinois legislature passed a bill the last week of May that would regulate fracking, the controversial practice for getting natural gas and oil by injecting water and chemicals into shale formations. The bill is being called the strictest package of fracking regulations in the nation. But many people disagree with it. That’s because they think there should be a moratorium or ban on fracking. The bill will become law if Gov. Pat Quinn signs it. Right now there is no fracking in Illinois. But if the bill passes, fracking is expected to start. The bill does have some safeguards but critics say that fracking can never be safe.

Industry, of course, is all for the fracking in Illinois. They say it will bring jobs and needed energy. But concerned activists like Annette McMichael and Beverly Walter disagree with the idea of fracking because they are worried it will cause serious pollution of our drinking water and air. They are backing a proposed bill that would put a moratorium on fracking, which would mean no fracking for the next two years, while more studies are done. That bill was introduced in the state General Assembly by state Senator Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago).

McMichael is a member of Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE). She has had personal encounters with industry representatives near her home.

One of the things McMichael is concerned about is a policy called “forced pooling.” “This is very complicated,” McMichael said in an interview. “Forced pooling means that once industry has leased 51 percent of any given area, they can use 100 percent of the area, including everyone who did not sign a lease. I can be arrested for trying to keep them off my own land.”

McMichael had already known about forced pooling, but she was even more intrigued and disturbed when she started to have personal experiences on her own land.

“It had been happening in other states,” she said. “So when the land man contacted me that was my first concern.”

Land men work on behalf of gas and oil companies, convincing residents to sign leases to allow fracking. She said that more than 51 percent of the land has been leased in Johnson County, where she lives, so the companies can use forced pooling.

“Fracking, toxic waste storage, pipelines, anything could happen on my land,” she said. “This was confirmed by the land man when I called about the sample lease. This has been confirmed by two attorneys. And the state’s Attorney General’s office was not able to deny that this was correct.”

I talked to Illinois resident Beverly Walter at an event at the University of Chicago where a journalist reported on fracking in Pennsylvania and Poland. Walter seemed a bit hysterical about the whole idea of fracking. She obviously does not agree with it. She is from the Coalition for a Moratorium on Fracking Investigative Task Force. She thinks there are alternatives to fracking.

“The solution is to be renewable,” she said. “Cut down on meat. Animal products use a lot of energy.”

When Walter heard about the fracking bill in Illinois, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“They’re buying leases already in Illinois,” she said. She thinks natural sites and tourism in Illinois will be hindered if fracking starts in Illinois.

Dr. Lora Chamberlain also attended the University of Chicago event. She doesn’t believe industry promises that fracking will help the economy. She thinks the lease payments to land owners for fracking on their land won’t make much difference for people. She thinks “Americans are chumps” for believing company promises.

“The industry gives us chump change to do what they want,” she said. “The industry thinks we will sell anything including our children” – in other words their health and future well-being, she said. “It’s like taking your mother’s jewelry and expecting the money to last forever….We can’t trade food for gas. We can’t trade water for gas either.”

She also mentioned the risk of earthquakes being caused by fracking, and pointed to a 6.0 earthquake in Italy.

“This is an explosive process,” she said. “Do we really want to industrialize our world? We have to stop burning carbon.”

People around the country are watching the Illinois debate over regulatory and moratorium bills. Fracking has already caused serious problems in other states including Pennsylvania and Colorado, as shown in the movie “Gasland.” For example, residents featured in the documentary are able to light their tap water on fire because of gas that has gotten into it. And they also showed water turning brown after sitting for a couple hours because of contamination. People in the documentary said they are having to buy bottled water, but it is expensive and they feel they should be able to use their tap water.

Cliff Willmeng lives in Lafayette, Colorado, near Weld County which has hundreds of fracking wells. Willmeng is fighting to ban fracking in his town. But on May 21, Boulder County, which includes Lafayette, lifted a moratorium on fracking. Willmeng moved to Colorado from Chicago looking for a healthier place for his kids and now he feels like he’s fighting to protect their health. I interviewed Willmeng by phone.

“I was shocked and awed,” Willmeng said. “I have all types of fear.”

When he moved to Colorado, he knew nothing about fracking. When he found out about it, he said, “I didn’t want to move, I wanted to fight back.”

He added that it is “empirically and scientifically” proven that fracking is a threat.

“Fracking should be banned,” he said. “None of this can be made safe.”

He said two local communities have already banned fracking, and he is working with a group trying to ban it in his town and others.

“We have to create a political force to fight back,” he said.

Residents in Illinois who oppose fracking feel the same way. They are asking the governor to veto the regulatory bill and institute a moratorium on fracking.

“Long-term,” Walter said,“this is totally suicidal.”

Step through this door to visit Altgeld Gardens’ new farmers market. Photo by Manquaze Allen.

Marguerite Jacobs is the founder of Altgeld Gardens’ new farmers market located at 939 East 130th Place. Mrs. Jacobs, who happens to be my mother, gets her fresh produce and supplies from Pembroke, Illinois. Vegetables, peanuts and fruit are sold at the market for a low price. The food is freshly grown, so there are no chemicals in her vegetables and fruit. Here are a few items that Mrs. Jacobs sells: potatoes, onions, peppers, oranges, carrots and much more.

“Altgeld is a food dessert community. I feel that the younger kids are exposed to so much fat foods and not enough healthy products. The farmers market will give the kids good choices to eat,” said Mrs. Jacobs. She spent much of the time preparing to open the market at Altgeld in June of 2012. Now she is selling her produce and in 10 months her goal is to start selling meat.

Mrs. Jacobs has big plans. Once she starts selling meat, she plans to put together a food bag that will consist of vegetables and two different types of meat for $10. The bags used at the farmers market are environmentally friendly bags. When the residents buy the food, they can bring the bags back to shop again and they can wash the bags. She wants to make it easy for seniors to buy. She even has an Illinois Link machine so the residents can purchase food. She is helping everyone have access to healthy food.

We heard that the CHA wanted to demolish Altgeld Gardens because they said there is nothing happening here. Now we have a store and a place for youth to work. Mrs. Jacobs wants to help youth during the summers, too; she’s paying the youths to help packing the food. She is doing as much as she can to help out the Altgeld community. “Some people think the residents in this area want things for free. We have hard working people living in this neighborhood, and the kids feel like its no hope,” expressed Mrs. Jacobs.

My mother volunteers to show my sister and me that hard work is how you get ahead and that nothing is free. She says that this is a self-sustaining neighborhood and she is willing to do her part to make it happen. Her daily schedule starts with safety patrol from 7:30 am-8:30 am and after that, she spends time in the farmers market. My mother is giving good inspiration to others within the Altgeld community.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor talks to a young fan at a recent book signing and lecture at the Harold Washington Library. Photo by Mary C. Piemonte.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor declares proudly that she has a lot in common with poor people, including public housing tenants. She should know, since she grew up in a South Bronx public housing project “in abject poverty struggling with an illness, in a dysfunctional family.”
Sotomayor, who became an instant American icon after her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in May 2009, shared more about her early life there during a recent visit to Chicago promoting her memoir, “My Beloved World.”
The book covers her transition from her early life growing up in New York City to becoming a judge on the country’s highest federal bench. Early life in public housing was not easy, she said to the audience in the jam-packed auditorium at the downtown Harold Washington Library last month. However, her role models, including her mother, and her perseverance in the face of obstacles to her life’s goals allowed her to gain success and become the first Latina and third woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Growing up a juvenile diabetic with an alcoholic father, in an era where things like that were kept hidden, where poverty was something that was perceived as shameful, where being a Latina in situations where I had been made to feel uncomfortable,” was very hard, Sotomayor said.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor mingles with the crowd at the Harold Washington Library during a recent book-signing and lecture. Photo by Mary C. Piemonte.

“So many of us, not just Latinos, I think anybody who feels different, anyone who had a life challenge of any kind – a parent or loved one with addictions, anyone who had dealt with chronic diseases of themselves or someone they loved. Anyone who’s been poor or anyone who has felt insecure, we share similar emotions and we share similar enough experiences that I had hoped that in writing about them two things would happen: The first is my favorite line in the book, it’s a passage in which I’m talking about the value of role models by describing how meeting your first role model, the person who shows you that you can be a path to success, is perhaps the most important moment in every young person’s life,” she added.
Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said she also wanted to “have fun writing her book.
“I wanted people to come see a piece of my life. To experience the moments that were fun and enjoyable that taught lessons at the same time,” she said.
Sotomayor read excerpts of her book that talked about her appearance as a youth, meeting her husband, and her good and bad times being raised in public housing. She credited her mother, some aunts and uncles as being her inspiration who instilled in her an extraordinary sense of determination and the power of believing in oneself.
Sotomayor also encouraged others, especially the youth, to persevere in reaching their life’s goal despite the obstacles they too face.
“It’s not the idea of reaching a dream,” she said. “Because sometimes you can’t for a lot of reasons outside your control, but what you can do is enjoy the process of trying. Never be afraid to say, ‘I don’t know these people.’ And then reach out to others and ask for help and learn how to enrich yourself,” Sotomayor said.
After answering some of the audience members’ questions, Sotomayor sat behind a desk to sign books.

Background
Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her law degree from Yale in 1979, according to the Chicago Public Library press release announcing her visit. Sotomayor “has the rare distinction” of being nominated and confirmed to three federal judiciary posts by three different presidents. In 1991, she was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H.W. Bush. President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1997 and President Obama nominated her for the Supreme Court.
“The Bronxdale Houses and Bronxdale Community Center was renamed after Sotomayor, who lived in the 28-building housing complex between 1957 to 1970,” according to a news report in May 2010.

Activist and photographer Bernard Kleina (left) talks to Chicago Freedom School graduate Richard Wilson at a recent commemoration for Dr. Martin Luther King. Photo by Mary C. Piemonte.

People around the city recently celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while organizing to continue the fight for social justice.

The Chicago Freedom School, a non-profit organization which trains people at all ages in social justice organizing techniques, hosted an “intergenerational” program to honor Dr. King’s activism in Chicago at Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn St., several weeks ago.

In the first half of their 3-hour program, an intergenerational roster of the organizations involved talked to the audience about how Dr. King “brought organizing, marches and political change to the South and beyond.” In this city, the event organizers recalled that King “mobilized mass marches on the Southwest side, lived and shared community with residents on the West Side, and fought for fair housing justice for all of Chicago.”

Discussion on Past and Present

After the film, the program participants broke out into small groups for an interactive workshop on racially motivated gentrification tactics by wealthy realtors between 1905 and 1962. They also examined current housing segregation and displacement in Chicago more than 45 years after Dr. King’s work locally.

In the small groups, the participants had to match up dates to example cases of segregation events that took place in the city before the Chicago Freedom Movement, such as the establishment of Chinatown around Van Buren and Clark streets in 1905.  They also dealt with the proliferation of “racial restrictive covenants” that began in 1927; the “restrictive covenants” were contractual agreements among property owners that prohibited the purchase, lease or occupation of their building by a particular group of people, usually African Americans.

The organizers then discussed how “redlining” of districts began in 1934, which primarily targeted African Americans, Latino, Asian and Jewish neighborhoods, deeming them “high risk” areas for real-estate investments and denying residents mortgages and home improvement loans, regardless of their financial history.

The establishment of the Chicago Housing Authority in 1937 was another highlight of discussion, which the Freedom School organizers said resulted in massive amounts of public housing being constructed in black residential areas on the South and West sides, largely due to white aldermen who refused to allow public housing to be built in their wards.

Construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway was another example the Freedom School organizers cited as having created “an enormous physical barrier” separating Black and white residents on the city’s South Side. First named the “South Route Expressway,” the new road was designed to travel along 400 west, a block from former Mayor Richard J. Daley’s home grounds in the Bridgeport area. But just a month after the former Robert Taylor Homes was approved to be built, the route was changed to go along Wentworth Avenue, “a street which was a well-established racial divide in the City,” according to the Freedom School.

Youth Alumni

Richard Wilson, a senior at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in Blue Island and a 2011 Freedom School alumnus, said during the event that “I feel like without us studying the past social justice movement, we really wouldn’t understand the fundamentals of how to make a movement today.”

Jasmine Thomas, a 2011 Freedom School alumnus and senior at Young Women Leadership Charter School in the Bronzeville community, told RJ after the event that young people like her should become more like Dr. King and get involved in social justice issues.

“He knew who he was and what he stood for,” she said. “That’s what made people believe in what he did. So I feel like we as young people need to define ourselves instead of being involved in the latest trends.”

Chris Williams, a 2010 alumnus and senior at Walter Dyett High School, told RJ that by participating in CFS programs, he learned a lot about oppression and struggles within the community. He even gave a few speeches and did actions based on social justice. Williams added that young people should carry on Dr. King’s legacy.

“I think he was bold,” Williams said. “He fought for us to do a lot of stuff that we can do today.”

The program also included an exhibit of photographs of Dr. King and others during the Chicago Freedom Movement in Grant and Marquette Parks from 1965-66 captured by activist and photographer Bernard Kleina, who was a Catholic priest at that time.

Kleina told RJ that he donated his iconic photographs to the Freedom School event. “Some of the photographs also tell us about what we need to do now,” Kleina said. “The fight is far from over.”

Tony Alvarado-Rivera, coordinator of the Freedom School’s youth programs, told RJ before the program that youth participants at the school have been busy keeping the attitude of Dr. King and others regarding social justice issues. By doing things to eradicate racial inequalities among people of color, such as addressing the current food deserts in the low-income Englewood neighborhood, conducting restorative justice efforts around peer-juries in high schools, and holding workshops on the school-to-prison pipeline. They also collaborated with other youth groups to introduce the Chicago Safety Act, which Rivera said “would allow for more transparency around detentions, expulsions and suspensions in Chicago public schools.”

The event was sponsored by the Crossroads Fund.

Protestors gather on the 70th anniversary of the first controlled nuclear reaction near the site where it occurred on the University of Chicago campus on Dec. 2, 2012. Photo by Tyreshia Black.

The abstract sculpture by Henry Moore on the University of Chicago campus looks like a soldier’s helmet or maybe a mushroom cloud or a skull. It was created to mark the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, which was done at the university on Dec. 2, 1942. Exactly 70 years later, on Dec. 2, 2012, many people came out to pay their respects at a conference at the University of Chicago.

But there certainly were not as many people as should have come, given what nuclear reactions have meant for our society. Many people were not even aware of the event or the history behind it. I personally never knew of the historical event until I attended the commemoration at the university. Luckily, I had a chance to meet several activists who gave me insight on what is going on and their concerns about nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

Urban Youth International Journalism Program students Tyreshia Black and Jaylen Miller interview anti-nuclear activists.

Nuclear power does not release carbon dioxide causing global warming but there are serious environmental, financial and social impacts of nuclear energy. Mining uranium for reactors causes radioactive waste, especially on Native American land. Accidents at nuclear reactors like the Fukushima plant in Japan can be devastating. Nuclear power creates radioactive waste which we do not know how to store. And used fuel from nuclear power plants is used for making nuclear bombs.

I met up with Leona Morgan, a Native American activist from the Navajo tribe, and Robert Chavez, a 19-year-old youth coordinator for Honor Our Pueblo Existence and Think Outside the Bomb in New Mexico. These two really want to make people aware of the dangers we have with the nuclear power and weapons industries. They both have had personal experiences throughout their lives dealing with uranium mining, which provides the raw material for nuclear reactions and nuclear weapons factories and testing.

“I work with uranium issues and some of my family died from reproductive issues, which can be caused by radiation from uranium,” said Morgan, who really wants to let it be known that she is against nuclear power and nuclear weapons. “I grew up in a place contaminated with uranium and I never knew about it until after college.”

Chavez recited numerous facts about nuclear issues by memory. He lives near Los Alamos, a government-owned nuclear research and production laboratory, and said there is always a smell in the air that never seems to leave. “It’s like pure waste always seeming to be inhaled by the innocent,” Chavez said. He also explained several other details to me about toxic nuclear waste.

“Plutonium has a half-life of 20,000 years. Think of how that could harm future generations,” he said.

I asked Morgan and Chavez what could be done to get the younger generation informed about the situation.

“Talk to your friends and create a class presentation,” said Morgan. “Just try to encourage them to encourage others.”

“Use social media,” added Chavez. “Share articles and videos of what you know so they’ll also know. Don’t be afraid to expose the truth. If you know something, say something.”

I also met Kendra Ulrich from Friends of the Earth. Ulrich is the coordinator for the Safe and Green Campaign, which was created to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. Ulrich was raised in Ohio and started a lot of her activism there. I was curious what she thought about youth not knowing about nuclear power plants and waste.

“In Vermont and Massachusetts, there are a lot of young people” who know about the issues, she said. “It’s not that young people don’t care, it’s just that they don’t know. They might assume things and not know the truth.”

“If people don’t know, they won’t act,” she added.

Ulrich had been focused on Vermont but Illinois has some work to do around nuclear reactors too. Illinois has the most nuclear reactors in the country, with 11 operating and three closed, according to the Nuclear Energy Information Service. Some of the reactors have a history of serious problems. According to the NEIS: “Illinois reactors have been fined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over 100 times, for nearly $8.5 million for violations of federal regulations and poor operating practices.”

And accidents anywhere affect the whole nuclear power industry. According to the NEIS: “In case of a serious nuclear power accident anywhere in the U.S., Illinois reactors could be assessed as much as $140 million a year for seven years to finance resulting liability payments.”

Currently, nuclear waste is stored on-site at reactors. But once it is moved to a central storage site as planned, trucks and trains could be going through Chicago carrying nuclear waste. Illinois produces more high-level nuclear waste than any other state each year, according to NEIS.

Before the University of Chicago event ended, everybody went outdoors and walked toward the Moore statue. We said prayers, lit candles and rotated around the statute while joining hands. After releasing hands, Chavez made the last remark. “Even when you are scared to tell what you know, just say it because what you know and tell will always help others,” he said.