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Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates teaches a lesson on keeping democracy
By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
On April 24, the Chicago Board of Education approved the Chicago Teachers Union’s new collective bargaining agreement after roughly a year of negotiations. The board vote was 19-0, with one member abstaining. The $1.5 billion, four-year contract is historic in its scope and popularity. Over 85% of the CTU’s 27,000 eligible voting members voted 97% in favor of the agreement, which expands community schools, increases staff-
ing, decreases class sizes for all grade levels, and addresses the disparity in teacher evaluations, among other things.
The contract is the culmination of the CTU’s evolution since 2010, when Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) took control of the union and started bargaining for far more than just wages and benefits. CORE’s focus during negotiations on things like instructional quality, classroom sizes, youth poverty, and social supports is often referred to as common good bargaining.
The National Education Association de-
fines common good bargaining as a “bargaining strategy where educators and their unions join together with parents and other stakeholders to demand change that benefits not just educators, but students and the community as a whole.”
On April 11, I sat down with Stacy Davis Gates to talk about the sweeping new contract, her re-election bid (CTU will vote for its next president in May), and Karen Lewis’ new posthumous memoir, “I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life in Education,” for which Gates wrote the afterward.
Our conversation ended up being a mas-
“My political education was that it was once illegal for people like me to read and write; that there were laws on the books throughout this country that regulated both women and Blacks to second-class status; and that we have always been political. This idea that Chicago’s public schools were not political places is actually ahistorical."
ter class in the kind of broad-based, inclusive, coalition politics it will take to fight against oligarchs and authoritarians. Gates, a former history teacher (even though once a teacher, always a teacher), has the rare ability to connect the CTU’s local struggles with the country’s national political crisis. Democrats, Progressives, Leftists, and other would-be defenders of democracy and the common good would do well to take heed and learn what the CTU has accomplished.
The Culture: This contract can be considered a culmination of all the fights the CTU has had since 2010. Can you explain how you all got here (it’s the first time in 15 years the CTU has reached a bargaining agreement without first taking a strike vote)?
SDG: You have Donald Trump and Elon Musk partnering on this DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). What DOGE is doing is what Arne Duncan, Paul Vallas, and Rahm Emanuel did to Chicago Public Schools. They closed. They consolidated. They limited. They robbed budgets. So, when you see this contract rebuilding school libraries and hiring librarians, that’s as simple as our pivot out of Chicago’s DOGE. We were only able to do this because of the formula we put together.
A group of educators whose schools were being closed and turned around in 2013 got together and found the impacted families, because they were our students in the neighborhoods where we worked. We were able to create a coalition to save our schools with the people most impacted by what was happening.
The media says, ‘This is the first time in 15 years they haven’t taken a strike vote.’ We didn’t have to take a strike vote because we’d already gone on strike [in 2012, 2016, and 2019], and we’ve worked to change the law, where we can sit at the table as equal
three days in 2013 to save schools, and in 2015, he led a 34-day hunger strike with Ald. Jeanette Taylor and Mayor Johnson. Those are leaders we didn’t have for 30 years. We also built relationships and expectations with families at the schools. While we hear a lot about the inconvenience of our fight, they’ll also tell you a lot about the benefits of our fight.
The Culture: What are some examples of how schools have been transformed as a result of the CTU’s bargaining for the common good approach?
partners with the Chicago Public Schools. We also have the first democratically elected school board whose members have agency in how we relate to the district.
There have been a whole bunch of things that have happened. You have a mayor who is a middle school teacher and not adversarial. We were summoned to City Hall a week before we landed the contract. I believe that was the turning point because the mayor was able to clarify what the sticking issues were, how far apart we were monetarily, and basically show people, ‘You’re closer than you thought.’
So we worked from that vantage point. We have a school board with people like Jitu Brown, who led a march through this city for
Dyett as a viable space to get a well-rounded education.
But the best part is you have built-in agency and community through the sustainable Community Schools design that’s intrinsic to what happens at Dyett. Those things are the best benefits of the struggle. We said, ‘Give kids opportunity, fund the opportunity, and treat them as partners.’ It works.
The Culture: You’ve criticized outgoing CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who the school board fired in December 2024, as an obstructionist and a major impediment during the bargaining talks. How so?
SDG: From the beginning, Jennifer Johnson, the deputy mayor for education, was barred from the table. Somebody filed an ethics complaint that was investigated by the city’s board of ethics. They made a decision that Jen was too close to the CTU and wouldn’t be able to play a role. We believed she would have been a good bridge to help us understand each other. That’s how that role has been used in years past. She wasn’t able to participate.
Second, [Martinez] wrote an editorial for the Chicago Tribune declaring himself as the only independent and truthful arbiter in the negotiations by saying the mayor wasn’t his boss. That was dramatically different from how he worked when he worked with Mayor Lightfoot. He did exactly what she wanted him to do. By the way, he even paid the pension.
Third, he barred the school board from participating in the negotiations by going to the board and getting a temporary restraining order that moved them away. David Vitali, [former Chicago school board president] during Rahm’s administration, played a role in helping to settle the contract in 2012 when we were on strike. These are all things done previously.
SDG: Look at Dyett High School. Dyett is one of the shining examples of the work we’ve been doing. In 2015, Rahm closed Dyett. There was a 34-day hunger strike to keep that school open. Once the school was lifted from the closing list, in 2015, Karen Lewis and Jesse Sharkey took that to the negotiating table and produced 20 Sustainable Community Schools that get resources and supports that go beyond the normal allocations because that’s what we bargained. As a result, they have an artist-in-residence and all these beautiful murals. They’re repurposing the building. They have a state championship boys basketball team. Students from around the city see
The mayor’s deputy for education played a role, the mayors themselves played a role, and board officials played a role. [Martinez] figured out how to maneuver away from all three of those things, and so that presented an impediment.
The other thing is that for 30 years, we had not negotiated a contract when we were equal partners in the negotiating process. That’s a weak muscle … For the last 30 years, [the city and school board] had only wanted to talk about wages and benefits. The three times we went on strike, we forced them into
See STACY DAVIS GATES on page 4
Continued from page 3
those discussions. And it still didn’t mean they knew how to have those discussions. All of this took a tremendous amount of time to clarify and get a decent rhythm. And so, here we are.
The Culture: The new contract was voted on by 97% of the union’s nearly 27,000 eligible voting members (over 85% of eligible voters). How were you all able to find that kind of consensus?
SDG: There were 65 rank-and-file members on our bargaining team. We had everyone from social workers to physical therapists. I’m a high school history teacher, so I understand what it takes to do that work in the granular sense, which is why I need an elementary and special education teacher and case manager at the table. We were able to bring the people doing the work to the table. There were also people from community groups at the table. We had no problem relinquishing authority to experts and the people most impacted. That’s why we got 97%, because our members see themselves, their needs, and their work in the results.
The Culture: Despite that 97% approval, you’re facing a challenge to your presidency from a group called the Respect Educate Advocate Lead (REAL) caucus, which comprises former CORE members. Erika Meza is REAL’s candidate for president. They’ve criticized CORE for what they’ve described as its inability to listen to different ideas. How do you square the opposition and that criticism with that nearly unanimous vote on the new contract?
SDG: That’s part of our democracy that we trust. It’s OK to have a debate about the leadership and direction of this union. In fact, I welcome it because our members need to affirm and reaffirm the direction of this union. That’s the confidence I get to walk in—it’s that our members say, ‘yes.’ You don’t walk into confidence if they say ‘maybe’ or ‘no.’ It is good for our leadership and our democracy to have a debate about our overall direction and how our values are expressed and get members’ buy-in through a process like an election, so I look forward to it.
The Culture: You were very close to the late Karen Lewis and even wrote the afterword to her new posthumous memoir (Angela Davis
wrote the foreword). In the afterword, you wrote: “The legacy media outlets had little language and a one-dimensional understanding of movement building, and lacked the patience to learn about and engage the social justice unionism she led, so they lampooned her voice and image.” Do you feel that that’s happening to you, too?
SDG: No, I don’t think that’s happening to me, I think what’s happening to me is a plateau above that. Now, they recognize the power of a union with 30,000 members who are women and who have strong voices, deep connections in their communities, and relationships with families. Over time, we’ve seen the manifestations of that engagement and our actions dovetailing to an elected school board. The school district’s $9 billion budget now has transparency, democracy, and debate. Since 1995, that wasn’t our reality. The mayor said what he wanted, and the board did that. Now, there are questions that the board has to answer at the doors of voters. That’s powerful.
Number two, this year, schools were going to be closed, and our coalition was able to push for the school board to say, ‘No we’re not closing schools.’
Those are two powerful examples of the impact of Karen’s work. So, while people didn’t
understand it then, they understand it now as an ability to give people what they need. And when we’re giving people what they need and anchoring it in community, it means that billion-dollar donors to mayoral campaigns are not at the front of the line anymore. It means they wait in the line or they have to make their case just like we have to make our case. That sets up a different power dynamic. What we’re responding to now is people in power who don’t want a democracy and billionaires who prefer to work without that transparency. That’s a threat to the neoliberal democracy they’re accustomed to. We want something that looks more like a town hall.
The Culture: What was your political education like?
SDG: My political education was that it was once illegal for people like me to read and write; that there were laws on the books throughout this country that regulated both women and Blacks to second-class status; and that we have always been political. This idea that Chicago’s public schools were not political places is actually ahistorical. My politcal education is the result of segregation and misogyny, and the opportunities the Civil Rights movement provided. And how the Great Society helped build communities like Austin and
Chatham, because Black people were able to get jobs in the public sector. Government has done good things, can do good things, and only responds to good things when people are organized, led by their values, and can amplify them and push the pressure.
I understood how [social justice movements have] helped those who were once marginalized get a bigger space in our society. But understanding and doing are two different things. We needed a strong union. Our union’s ability to rise like a phoenix after the 2013 school closings and begin to contest for power in the city made the platforms of virtually every single politician running for office. Whether they believed that the city needed an elected school board or not, they said they believed it because they understood how popular the idea was with the community and with families. It was our organizing. It was our fight. It was our determination to anchor kids in the results that helped to transform what the points of debate had been in this city.
So we organized and we bargained for affordable housing. This contract will now bring together the city, city agencies, the school district, and our union to help put families who are unhoused at the front of the line. About 20,000 of our students are unhoused—the vast majority of them being Black. That’s a
benefit for those families, but why wasn’t that already being done? We live in a city where everything was controlled by one person, so you’d think that that one person would be able to see the whole board because they see all the component parts, but it has taken our collective bargaining agreement. And that only came into fruition because of what our communities are experiencing. The creation of community coalitions and a grassroots education movement are what helped propel many of these common good bargaining proposals.
The Culture: In her memoir, Lewis wrote that Naomi Klein’s book, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” changed her life. She wrote that the book “is about how capitalism exploits catastrophes of nature and war to push privatization and profit, to the detriment of those most impacted by the disasters.” What’s a book that changed your life?
SDG: Probably W.E.B. DuBois’ “Black Reconstruction.” It’s a significant way of looking at the world. Black workers, enslaved Africans, used the strike to break the Confederacy. There, you see the intense power of labor. We also see those enslaved Africans joining the fight with the Northern Army, which makes it stronger against the Confederacy. By the time the war ends, you can say with a lot of data that it was the enslaved Africans who were not yet American citizens who helped bring the country back together. Workers. And it was their needs that helped us create the public sector—public education, public health, the Department of Justice—things people need because they were deprived
of them. You also get the enfranchisement of Black people, and what that shows us is that our vote has impact, because we begin to see elected officials who look like us, and we begin to see our issues characterized in a very direct and personal way that people can’t turn away from. That’s why there was so much violence in reaction to it, because that approach was effective.
The Culture: Elizabeth Todd-Breland, the University of Illinois Chicago professor, was instrumental in organizing Lewis’ memoir and she’s listed as a co-author. She was one of the seven school board members selected by Mayor Johnson, who resigned in October 2024 amid the mayor’s fight with Pedro Martinez and Johnson’s proposed $300 million loan to fund the new contract and pensions. Todd-Breland is a pretty progressive educator. What do you think about the health of the progressive coalition that helped Mayor Johnson get elected?
SDG: Everyone leading in this moment is in over their heads. Everyone. We have a fascist occupying Pennsylvania Avenue. This generation has never fought a fascist in the way we’re going to have to resist this fascist. The best way forward is with each other. Coalition work is intense, difficult, and involves way too many people—and it is the only way we’re going to survive this moment. I fall out with family all the time, but we know how to kiss and make up.
It is the intention of our work that matters. Young people in Chicago, CPS students—the vast majority of them are melanated; some are immigrants and undocumented; some are well-heeled and come from wealthy and elite families; some live in segregated neighborhoods; some only speak their native language—we get to serve all those children and anchor their needs. We get to work with the people who love them at home, we get to struggle with the community groups that help anchor and build a force field around their neighborhoods, and they get to work with us, too.
It doesn’t mean that it works all the time. It means that it’s the only thing that does work, so we’re committed to that coalition, because we believe it’s the only way we maintain a democracy in this country.
Learn More
Read more about what’s in the new contract at ctulocal1.org.
In a statement in April, the Chicago Teachers Union said the new contract “will represent a major leap forward in the transformation of a district that is still recovering from the gutting and financial irresponsibility carried out by Trump’s Project 2025 style efforts under Rahm Emanuel, Arne Duncan, Paul Vallas, and other privatization forces that closed over 200 public schools between 2002 and 2018.”
According to CTU, some features of the new contract include:
• Doubles the number of libraries and librarians for schools.
• Enforceable and smaller class sizes for all grade levels.
• Ensuring social workers and nurses serve students in every school, every instructional day.
• Doubles the bilingual education staffing supports for students.
• Additional staffing, curricular and enrollment supports for Early Childhood education students and programs.
• Creates 215 more case manager positions district-wide to support students with disabilities.
• A cost of living adjustment of 17-20% compounded (tied to inflation) over the four years of the contract.
• Provides new steps that compensate veteran educators for their experience.
• Increases in prep time for clinicians, elementary, and special education teachers so students arrive to classrooms ready for them.
• Expanded benefits for dental, vision, infertility and abortion care, gender-affirming care, hearing aids, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and chiropractic services.
• A more than tripling of the number of Sustainable Community Schools, from 20 to 70, over the course of the agreement.
• Provides CTU, CPS, City and sister agency coordination for the first time to provide housing support, section 8 vouchers, rental assistance, and affordable units to CPS families in need.
• Enshrines 12 weeks paid parental leave, equal parental, personal illness, and supplemental leave rights for Paraprofessional and School-Related Personnel (PSRPs) to teachers.
• A Green Schools initiation of additional resources and collaboration to remediate lead, asbestos, and mold in aging school buildings while upgrading to green energy with environmentally sustainable technology, materials, and practices.
• Protections for academic freedom, Black history, and culturally relevant curriculum for the first time in the contract.
• Protections for academic freedom that enshrine educators’ ability to teach Black, indigenous, and other history.
• An additional $10 million annual investment in sports programming.
• Continuation of Sanctuary School procedures.
• A new article that creates LGBTQIA+ safe schools.
The Cook County Provident Scholarship Fund is now accepting applications | The goal of this scholarship program is to provide opportunities to students from communities that historically have faced greater challenges, including access to education, economic opportunities, transportation, food, or medical care. The application period closes at midnight on Sunday, May 18. Visit cookcountyhealth. org/provident-scholarship-fund to learn more and apply.
Summer Day Camp Registration is now open | Register today. Summer sessions run June 16 to Aug. 1. Visit chicagoparkdistrict. com/programs to learn more.
Learn Computer Basics | Saturday, May 10, 11 a.m. - noon, Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road | Need help with basic computer skills? Come into the Legler Regional Library for guided lessons through Chicago DigitalLearn. Some examples of help we can provide:
• Navigating the Internet or email
• Help formatting a Word document
• Downloading library items in apps like Hoopla or Libby
• Accessing job resources such as Chicago DigitalLearn or LinkedIn Learning
Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events for more info.
Market Days with the Greater Chicago Food Depository | Saturday, May 17, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road | In partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Legler Regional will be hosting Market Days every third Saturday of the month. Come out to select from a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and learn about resources available from the library and other neighborhood organizations. Produce will be distributed while supplies last and cannot be distributed after 3 p.m. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events for more info.
Saturday, May 17, 11 a.m. – noon, Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road | Group Bike Ride | Join your librarians for a guided group ride around Garfield Park. We start from and return to the library parking lot. Participation in this ride is at your own risk. We are riding on city streets. While reasonable care will be taken, the Chicago Public Library assumes no responsibility for participants and their vehicles. Any participating child must have an accompanying adult. This event is a part of our week-long celebration of all things BIKE. For all ages 6 and up. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events for more info.
Austin Town Farmers Market | Every Thursday from June through October, Rain or Shine, 1 – 6 p.m., Austin Town Hall Park, 610 W. Lake Street | Austin Town Hall Farmers Market | Discover the best of local, sustainable farmers and food producers, community programs for all ages, and more. Visit austintownhallcitymarket.com for more info.
Monday, May 12, 6 - 7:15 p.m., Austin Branch Library, 5615 W. Race Avenue | Game Night | Unwind and clear your mind this evening with some games in the teen area. Choose any game from our selection, including Nintendo Switch, board, and/or card games. See you there! For teens 13 to 19. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/v2/events for more info.
Thursday, May 15, 6 - 8 p.m., Kehrein Center for the Arts, 5628 W. Washington Blvd. | Just(Us) Dinners | Join us for our fourth Just(US) Dinner, where we will bring Black folk from our community together to unpack the struggles and challenges that are unique to their lived experiences as Black folks over dinner and a movie. This event topic will be determined based on community input from our first three events. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to another incredible evening surrounded by friends and great conversation. More details to come. Each 2-hour meal gathering will include a media moment to screen the film and a guided conversation and reflection led by a clinical psychologist who will hold group therapy-style sessions over the meal. Visit kcachicago.org/upcoming-events for more info and brushfire.com/kcachicago/ justusdinners1/596837 to register.
Friday, May 16, noon – 3 p.m., Austin Branch Library, 5615 W. Race Avenue | Learn to Quilt | Join us to learn to quilt. The class is led by local Austin resident Jacqueline Doctor Johnson. Come expecting to learn and to have some fun. Bring your own supplies. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events for more info.
Wednesday, May 21, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., Austin Branch Library, 5615 W. Race Avenue | Film Screening: Blink Twice (2024) | Join the Austin Branch for a screening of Blink Twice. When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. As strange things start to happen, Frida questions her reality. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons. com/events.
Wednesday, May 21, 6 - 7:15 p.m., Austin Branch Library, 5615 W. Race Avenue | LEGO® at the Library | Channel your inner design skills and creativity by building amazing structures with your friends. We’ll provide some ideas if you need a little inspiration. Just get ready to build and show off your imagination. We supply the LEGO® bricks. For ages 10 to 19. Space limitations may apply. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events.
Saturday, May 24, 2 – 3:00 p.m., Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road | Our Westside Story: Preserving Our History | The Westside of Chicago is rich with history, resilience, and cultural contributions, yet much of its story remains undocumented or at risk of being lost due to rapid change. “Our Westside Story: Preserving Our History” is dedicated to
Every Tuesday, 9 – 10 a.m., Three Crosses of Calvary M.B. Church, 4445 W. Madison St. | Mercy Community Development Center | Join Good Neighbor and Mercy Community Development Center for prayer. Call (708) 217-5108 for more info.
Every Wednesday, 8 – 9 a.m., Good Neighbor Center, 5437 W. Division St. | West Garfield Park Prayer Meeting | Join Good Neighbor for prayer. Call (708) 217-5108 for more info.
Every Thursday, 10:00 a.m. – 2 p.m., 10 S. Kedzie | West Side Wellness Fair | The Garfield Community Service Center will host a West Side Wellness Fair this and every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., bringing essential services to the West Side community including warm nutritious meals and wraparound support services such as free clothing, health care assistance, housing support, job support, harm reduction products and substance use treatment referrals.
Every Thursday, 2:30 – 4 p.m., 5437 W. Division St. | Overcomers Group Soup Kitchen | The location for this staple event in the community has changed. They will still issue free weekly haircuts (Iimit of six). Contact Maria
bridging that gap, providing a platform for community members, archivists, and storytellers to discuss the importance of preserving our past and our right now. Through monthly listening sessions, this initiative will educate, inspire, and empower Westside residents to document their histories. Featuring conversations with local archivists, artists, and everyday people, each session will highlight best practices for preservation and share untold stories that deserve to be heard. This effort isn’t just about reflection, it’s about action. Listeners will walk away with tangible ways to record, safeguard, and share their histories for future generations. By amplifying voices from the Westside, we ensure our community’s legacy lives on. Visit chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events for more info.
Moon at (773) 909-2186 or mmoon@ healthauthority.org.
Every Fourth Saturday of the Month, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m., Sankofa Cultural Arts & Business Center, 5820 W. Chicago Ave. | AAABNA Monthly Meeting | Get ready for AAABNA’s next panel discussion! Our expert panel brings together leading voices to explore COMED opportunities and industry knowledge. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn and engage.
Every Second Tuesday of the Month, 9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m., Columbus Park Refectory, 5701 W. Jackson Blvd. | Leaders Network Monthly Meeting | The Leaders Network is a collaborative of faith and community leaders who organize, strategize, and mobilize to improve the quality of life for the Westside communities and Greater Chicago. Visit leadersnetworkchicago.org for more info.
Every Second and Fourth Saturday of the Month, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Greater St. John Bible Church, 1256 N. Waller Ave. | GSJ’s Healing Austin Event | Twice monthly on every second and fourth Saturday, the church hosts healing circles that focus on racial healing with open discussions. Adults and teens are welcome. Lunch is provided.
Saturday, May 31, 10 a.m. – noon, BUILD Chicago, 5100 W Harrison St. | Yoga on the Farm | Free Yoga on the farm. In partnership with The Collective Yoga Co-op, BUILD is hosting FREE yoga on the farm. This activity is for children and adults aged 10 years old and up. Space is limited to 12 people, so registration is required. Contact Kesiah Bascom kesiahbascom@ buildchicago.org for more info.
Monday, June 2, 6 - 7:15 p.m., Austin Branch Library, 5615 W. Race Avenue | Father’s Day Cards | Drop in and make a beautiful card for Father’s Day. Celebrate the dads and father figures in your life. The library will supply materials and other crafting essentials. Supplies will be available starting at 6 pm. For Teens. Visit chipublib. bibliocommons.com/events for more info.
The energy was high at Moore Park on April 24, as youth, residents, and community organizations came together for the first Quarterly Community Safety Convening, hosted by the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP, along with partners Anchor Chicago, the National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated, Jehovah Jireh Outreach Ministry 1, and Violence Interrupters Inc.
As the Neighborhood Conveners for Austin under the City of Chicago’s People’s Plan for Community Safety, our goal is clear: Work alongside the community to build real, lasting safety solutions for the neighborhood and thanks to the powerful feedback we received, we’re off to an incredible start!
Youth voices, community members, and local organizations shared their ideas, concerns, and visions for the future. Their input will help shape new safety plans and upcoming initiatives like block resource fairs, job fairs, and special convenings focused on the issues that matter most to Austin residents.
“It’s important to hear from all parts of the community in spaces where people feel comfortable,” said Karl Brinson, president of the
Chicago Westside Branch NAACP. “What we saw at Moore Park was a powerful example of what’s possible when everyone is invited to the table to discuss issues and share solutions.”
A huge thank you to everyone who showed up, spoke up, and stayed engaged — your voice is what’s moving this work forward! We’re just getting started. Join us again for our next Quarterly Community Safety Convening on Wednesday, June 12, 6 to 8 p.m. at Moore Park, 5085 W. Adams St. Let’s keep the momentum going!
We can’t wait to keep building a safer, stronger Austin — together!
— Janeicia Williams, Community Ecosystem Director at Project Exploration Austin, and My CHI My Future Lead
For updates and upcoming events: Instagram: austinpeoplesplan4safety. Email: austinpeoplesplan4safety@ gmail.com
BY ROBELL AWAKE Author
The following is an excerpt from Robell Awake’s new book, “A Short History of Black Craft In Ten Objects.”
Before air-conditioning existed, staying cool during the summer months in the southern United States was a foreign skill for early European colonists. But enslaved Africans, hailing from similar warm climates, had developed, over centuries, architectural strategies for combating sweltering summer conditions. It was from these early enslaved builders that the most quintessential architectural feature of homes in the United States emerged: the porch.
Porches, verandas, porticoes, and other types of outdoor coverings connected to a building have existed in various forms across
the globe for centuries. However, what we think of as an [American-style] porch, first associated with homes in the southern United States, originally evolved from the dwellings of enslaved people. Anthropologist James Deetz explains that the early homes of the colonists did not have porches and that the closest thing to porches were small, enclosed vestibules that were similar to mudrooms. He states, ‘Porches are probably of African origin …. We have seen that porches have been found in slave cabins excavated at Kingsmill [Plantation in Virginia], dating to the third quarter of the eighteenth century. This is the earliest evidence that we have for porches to date.
At around the same time that the porches at Kingsmill Plantation were built, shotgun homes emerged in New Orleans. A result of the major influx of Haitian free people of color who came to the United States in the early 1800s, shortly
after the Haitian revolution, the shotgun home is an adaptation of West African residential architecture and almost always has a front porch. Shotgun homes are narrow houses, typically no more than twelve feet wide, in which one room leads to the next with no hallway between. Shotgun homes and their attached porches spread throughout the South from the 1860s through the 1920s. With the advent of industrialized lumber at the end of the nineteenth century, and thanks to the shotgun’s small footprint and ease of construction, this housing style became popular in poor, working-class, and middle-class communities, both Black and white.
Engineering professor John H. Lienhard writes:
‘When the cost of wood fell during the late 1800s, the shotgun house did indeed become the best way the poor could keep a roof over
their heads. But, by then, shotgun houses had added a new element to the American architectural vocabulary. You see, shotgun houses gave us the southern porch. We didn’t previously have porches like that in America. Like the shotgun house itself, southern porches are now all over America.’
Anthropologist John Michael Vlach writes of the front porch’s hidden legacy:
‘The impact of African architectural concepts has ironically been disguised because their influence has been so widespread; they have been invisible because they are so obvious. This unfortunate circumstance is demonstrated by the history of that common extension of the house—the front porch.’”
Buy the “A Short History of Black Craft In Ten Objects” online from Afriware Books at afriwarebooks.com, the official Black-owned bookstore of The Culture.
BY MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
The historic landmark at 5645 W. Corcoran Place in Austin was the Austin Bank of Chicago from 1913 to 2017. In 2018, Catholic Charities opened the Father Augustus Tolton Peace Center inside the building designed by architect Frederick Schock. Around eight months ago, the arts and culture nonprofit Alt Space Chicago (alt_Chicago for short) bought the building from Catholic Charities with plans to turn it back into a space for investing—only this time, the primary currency isn’t money. It’s community.
“This is a Community Investment Vehicle,” said Jordan Campbell, alt_Chicago’s co-founder and director, during a grand opening weekend for the former bank from April 25 through April 27.
“We’re bringing in organizations who are not paying full market rate [for office and activity space], which allows them to allocate more time and funding back into the community directly,” he said. “That’s a form of investment. A lot of times, we only think about investment in terms of money, but your time and energy are also resources.”
Campbell co-founded alt_Chicago in 2019 with Westside native and prominent creative John Veal, who died in 2022. Campbell said he’s calling the 46,000-square-foot building Legacy, in honor of Veal and other local storytellers changing the Westside narrative.
The new building will be home to five nonprofits and 10 artists-in-residence who will use it for community office space. The building will also feature a second-floor dining area that Campbell will call Equal.
“It’s inspired by the idea that we’re all equal at this table,” he said.
The building will also house regular arts and culture exhibitions and programming, emphasizing alt_Chicago’s mission of undertaking “tangible acts of service, using art and faith as tools to galvanize impassioned, self-sufficient communities to join in,” according to its website.
Campbell, a native of Ohio, moved to Chicago from California, where he had been pursuing a career in film production.
“God showed me this ain’t it,” Campbell said. “I saw a documentary about the Cabrini Green projects. It hurt to see our people struggling so much and to see so much violence and death portrayed. I asked God, ‘Where do you want me to go?’ and when I saw that film, I realized this must be the place.”
Campbell first moved to the Southside, but was lured to the Westside after being invited to speak to students at Aus-
tin High School. Campbell was a hit with the students, so a teacher asked him about becoming a substitute art teacher. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Campbell wasn’t certified to teach, but he created his own arts programming for students.
“I was like, this is where I’m called to be,” he said. “And for John, it was the same thing.”
An exhibition spanning the nonprofit’s history and curated by Justin Redding, was set up in the bank’s first-floor lobby. The exhibition included a wall of free photographs of community members. The photos were part of Project Stamp, alt_Chicago’s first project.
Since then, alt_Chicago has hosted a range of community activations, including their Alt_Space Markets that featured functional art installations in abandoned spaces.
During the grand opening, various vendors selling merchandise exhibited their offerings. Alt_Chicago didn’t charge them for tables.
“I feel like the folks showing up in these spaces and making these offerings through their organizations and movements, we have to respect that for where it is and what it is,” Campbell said.
If you’d like to donate to alt_Chicago or learn more about the space and/or programming, visit altspacechicago.com.
Supported by Black Workers Matter, workers at the huge, 400-employee Cloverhill Bakery in Galewood are fighting to democratize their union and win a new and better union contract.
The Cloverhill union is Local 30, Chemical and Production Workers Union of Central States Joint Board, based in Hillside. The existing contract was extended in 2021, with little worker awareness, from five to seven years—an unusually long term, workers say.
Workers are challenging new owners JTM Foods to avoid the past practice of owners signing a weak, “sweetheart”
contract with union officials.
Key contract demands include:
• Industry-competitive wages;
• Better safety rules;
• A 14-day advance notice on schedules;
• And a weekly limit on mandatory 12-hour shifts.
They’ve demanded that negotiations be conducted in good faith, including open and local access, so workers can observe bargaining as it happens.
According to workers, however, JTM Foods and the union
set the first three bargaining sessions at the Courtyard Marriott in Elmhurst, far from the bakery. Workers (or BWM) say this site and schedule were set without even worker representatives being consulted.
Also, the second session was set for International Workers Day on May 1, when unions and members usually reserve for public marches and other celebratory events, including this year at Union Park.
Despite these deliberate obstacles to transparency, workers say they are determined to win a fair process and a contract that respects their rights and needs.
BY OREN RESHEF, ABHAY ANEJA & MICHAEL LUCA
The Conversation
Labeling businesses as Black-owned can significantly boost their sales, we found in a recent study.
In June 2020, the business-review website Yelp introduced a feature allowing consumers to search for Black-owned restaurants. As professors who study digitization, inequality, and the economics of technology, we were interested in understanding its effect. So we analyzed more than two years of data from Yelp.
We found that restaurants labeled as Black-owned saw a 65% increase in online traffic, more searches and calls, and higher sales through food orders and in-person visits. These results suggest that for many Black-owned businesses, a simple change in their visibility can create new opportunities for growth.
However, the impact varied by location. The gains were strongest in politically liberal areas and places with lower levels of implicit racial bias, as measured by regional variation in implicit-association test scores. This suggests that platforms are, in part, channeling, as opposed to creating, customer demand. Interestingly, white customers drove most of the increase, suggesting the label helped raise awareness of businesses they might not have considered before.
This wasn’t just a 2020 trend – in follow-up analyses, we found similar results among businesses that opted into the feature later. We also collaborated with the online furniture company Wayfair, which launched a “Black Maker” label on its site in 2023, and found that it led to a 57% increase in web traffic. Finally, Yelp rolled out a Latino-owned label on the platform late that year, which led to a similar increase in consumer engagement.
This research has implications for business owners, digital platforms, and policymakers. Growing awareness of racial inequality – partially driven by the Black Lives Matter movement, especially after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 — has led to increased corporate and customer interest in supporting minority-owned businesses. It also led many companies to make commitments to promote racial equity.
However, more recently, many companies have dismantled these efforts. For instance, Target recently announced that it was eliminating its program to spotlight Black-owned businesses. Our findings suggest that increasing the visibility of minority ownership – a relatively low-cost change – can substantially improve economic outcomes for Blackowned businesses.
Our results also show that diversity initiatives aren’t just about warm and fuzzy feelings. Businesses should measure and evaluate their impact to ensure their programs are effective. A well-designed program can benefit the bottom line, while a poorly designed one risks being ineffective or even counterproductive.
So it’s important to acknowledge the potential risks. Past research, including some of our own, indicates that revealing racial identity sometimes can lead to discrimination or backlash. While our findings suggest that labeling can have positive effects, a poorly implemented policy can backfire. Yelp’s initiative design empowered users looking to support Black-owned businesses while allowing other users to continue searching in alternative ways.
That means policy design is crucial. What matters isn’t just what information is revealed, but also how it’s communicated. Our analysis shows that customer demand and preferences vary considerably across locations and demographics, meaning that context also matters.
While our research suggests that businesses experienced economic benefits from adopting the label, it’s crucial to understand which policy designs work best in the long run. For instance, Yelp’s program used an opt-in feature, which may have contributed to its success.
However, open questions remain. How are platforms affected by labeling businesses? What other types of labels might be impactful, and for which types of businesses? Could some interventions backfire?
Another key question is, which customers respond to racial identity disclosures?
Recent advances in data analytics can help companies refine their strategies, making it easier to target the right consumer groups for more effective initiatives.
Ultimately, our study is a step toward
understanding how transparency and visibility can shape economic outcomes. It highlights a diversity initiative that has benefited both customers and businesses, and provides a road map for companies that want to design initiatives that matter. And, more broadly, it speaks to a question facing all companies: How can companies better understand and shape their societal footprint?
Oren Reshef is an assistant professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. Abhay Aneja is an assistant professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Michael Luca is the director of the Technology and Society Initiative at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University.
The Conversation is a nonprofit, independent news organization dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good. Read more at theconversation.com.
April 30, 2025