quday,.Noven1ber 3, P765

'~ c as. ‘ a:
Loss or- HOPE. Hie lack oi a more. lioihing lo do nll day,
nothing loin an empty. lunnel oi an alley is all lhsi remains
ier many at Chicago‘s west Side Negnons. “Sell direction"
and "pride" are line \‘erms used by Hie agency people in
describing whai ihe people need +0 help i‘hemselves. eei.
ring ihe men to seek work or to lake peii l'n iraining pro.
grams is a maior problem. Some say lhsrs because ihe
people are inherenrly Ialy and irresponsible, Some say ilie
people are that way because life in the ghetto er ilie Nari-ii
and ilie iields oi ”is send has melhodically destroyed
wherever linen they may have lied. As Yhe social Workers
say. ihe people mnsi be "socially rehabiliiai‘ed“ belore any
orhei progress can come.

 

Sara Bares Chicago's
Negro Slum Conditions

Her-name was Sara Rainge anti she was only 19 years old. When we
met her she was working in a Congregational church on Warren Ave.
Sure, she said, she'd be glad to have us over to her apartment and talk
With us and let us take her pictures.

She had warned tis that she had just moved into her new apartment
and was selfscnnsclous about. its appearance. The apartment was a two
room, basement apartment for which she paid $72 a monrh. it had
“roaches" she pointed out not added quickly that it didn't have rats like
some (if the others She has known.

Sara has KWD children 7 both girls. One is ioiir years old and iiained
Billie. The olher is [We years old and named Cheri. The iaiher is no
longe. with the lainily. He is living in Mississippi. Sara, however, plans
to i-eniai-iy andlias a boy irieiid, Phil, who spends quite a lot or time
willi her. He Spends el‘eii more time now because he lost his job. He lost
his Job when . m 3 mother had lillri ari‘esled for disorderly Colidllci.

Hie hov inend Phil in M ii - di‘lmel‘ll while we iveie ldlkillg and
triltiiio piClui‘CS bin didn't have much to say. Sat-a said he has a good
We er hilt |hat "he gels mad and walks off the b. He S iiol

red,"

1 e first husband hasn't been divorced but Sam figures he's been
mairied so mdny limes Without dluil’ce lhal She silauldn’t have (a gel
divorced. Saia wants la Willi a while before she gets n‘ihl‘l'ied and shuts
having kids again, She 5 (1 she \Vanis ii [0 be “the real thing" this lime.

Her father lell hel‘ family of 19 mothers and sisters when Sara was

‘ 12 years old. She Went to work in lhe fields at ihal lime. “Who“ else can
you do down south?"

Sara only got as lar as the eighth grade in school and was rar hes
hind when she quit, “I don'[ know how I got so far behind. Maybe it‘s
because Ma moved so much when I was just starting,"

Sam said she was airaid to go [0 school up here. Airaid in start at
Inch 3 low level at her age. Afraid the teachers wouldn’t be so lriendly.

Like so many of Chicago's Negroes, Sara has been in Chicago lor
only a short period or time. She moved there lour years ago from Sun
Flower, Mississippi. ’

Since moving to Chicago Sara has been employed only three months
of her four years there. Those ihiee momhs — the last three months k
on: hnii been employed by an Urban Progress Center work project — a
project financed by federal war on pqverly money. i

Sara didn't. seem mad or bitter abhlit her situation in life. She didn’i

it: no to photograph her apaercnt until she got it “fixed up" — but
how much "ﬁxing up" can-b: don! (om: apartment-i: doubtfuL:

 

THE PEQPLE WERE FRIENDLY and anxious is tell abcui
their problem. 5&3 associaie ediior Bob Hodierne is seen
above talking with James Fuller. who is mentioned in ilie
storyio the right

 

 

Fage' Eleven-

Mall 0!: Elle Street
@lSii’miS silidrides

If you slap a Negro on the
streets in llie 't‘ Stile OI Lilir
cogo yutlll lind him nil oils to
talk tii you about his oi and
its problems

lililles Fuller who ha‘ li\ed in
the N0 . it» 2 years . d who
is a i ciid worker, 33 _ he
doesn't like "lhose great big build-
ings” in public housing pi-oiccis.
i-ie pi-elers smaller homes,

Fuller said that the people in
his neighborhood “are nice hut
they just don't keep things up."

Flillcr, who iS separated ii-om
his wife, thinits the police are
”pl-ctly rotten."

Charles Harris, another west
Side Negro, ililiiks that the any
gives the poor people money “to
keep them quiet.” Many times.
tliinhs Hal me “people don't
get thel

H‘dl'l’ls lives Wlih his family Find
said he‘d do: anyllnng to take care
of them. Hes a member of Local
46 oi the Laundry and at who
ei-s.

“Demonsiraiions are a k a )1,"
said l-lai-i-is, “if iliey mean some-
thing. Blll so lar they don’t.”

“Kennedy ptit soinctli
country Kilt. nobody ev
cept Lincoln, sold Haril’s.
son has to folio ”

He n‘clit on (O y, “It's the'Wrtll
Street people that’s [ahlig all the
money out or iheii‘ country and
putting it in ours. Of course, ihai's
good "

Elder R. an came from South
Carolina, lived in Baltimore 10

EMS and Darren 5 heioie coming
to Change. We met him while he
was working with a wrecking
Crew on an urban renewal project,
He said he didn't know anything
about what was going to he built
on that particular site.

Evans, a lay minister, said he
“liked [he lile in the South" but
likes ihe “treatment in the North
better.“

“Everything isn’t Jim Crow up

here,” he said.
_ Evans said he had no direct con-
‘tact with the city and ”in order m
‘knaw how good something is you
have to have direct dealings.”

He added, “me people say all dir-
ferent things about Mayor Daley.
I just don’t know."

in (his
d EK-
John-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE OF THOSE who has already received dined aid from Hie War on Poveriy I: Sara

Rsinge .nd lies ismily. in.

alto piﬂurtd. They plan in marry.

ovlrnmeni agency goi her her first iob in ion yenrr. She‘-
mn .hm wii‘h lisr m chidron Cheri [leHl .nd iiilli. irighil. Hts boy iiitnd Phil is

 

