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After Save A Lot closes, a smaller grocer could be coming to Austin,
Vol. 35 No. 1
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January 6, 2021
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Lewis school h l gets grant, PAGE 4
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West Siders skeptical of COVID-19 vaccine
But city hopes to earn their trust with equitable distribution plan By PASCAL SABINO Block Club Chicago
Some West Siders are looking at the first coronavirus vaccines with ambivalence. They are relieved vaccines are coming for the deadly disease that has ravaged their communities. But they are wary of potential side effects and are mindful of the legacy of medical systems abusing and neglecting communities of color. And West Siders wonder if health leaders will use vaccines as an excuse to ignore the reasons the pandemic disproportionately affected their communities in the first place. “We been through so much. How you gonna tell me you have a vaccine that’s going to help me, but you won’t even let me have access to food? You won’t let me have access to decent housing … a good job, a good education,” said Tamara Draper of Garfield Park. It will be months before coronavirus vaccines become available to the general public. Vaccinations began Dec. 15 in Chicago, with the first dose given to Dr. Marina Del Rios at Loretto Hospital in Austin on the West Side. City and West Side leaders have been working on strategies to ensure residents have accurate information about vaccines and opportunities to share their misgivings with medical leaders. But as Black and Latino residents continue to suffer disparities in health care, it will take more than symbolism of a Latina doctor being vaccinated to build trust. “I am aware of how they use Black people as guinea pigs … a continuation of misuse and abuse of our people. But I am hopeful,” Austin See VACCINE on page 6
File photo
THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Last year was marked by the COVID-19, protests over the murder of George Floyd and opportunistic looting that dealt a blow to major business corridors on the West Side.
Our biggest stories of 2020
A month-by-month recap of some of the biggest stories we covered last year By AUSTIN WEEKLY NEWS Michael Romain, Kelly Milan and Igor Studenkov
January | On Jan 1, recreational marijuana for adults over the age of 21 became legal in Illinois. The law was passed by the Illinois General Assembly on May 21, 2019 before it took effect in 2020. Illinois allows possession of 30 grams of weed, five grams of cannabis concentrate and/or 500 milligrams of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is one of 113
cannabinoids and counting identified in cannabis) in edibles (a maximum of 100 milligrams each) With the legalization of weed came pardons for those convicted of possessing 30 grams of marijuana or less prior to the legalization. Pardons are only granted if those convicted records reviewed by the Prison Review Board and Gov. Pritzker are granted. According to Cook County State’s Attorney’s Kim Foxx’s Office, those convicted in 2019 (at least a year ago) of
possessing 30 grams or less, Foxx’s office will automatically expunge your record. Illinois forbids smoking in public and you may not. With the exception of medical marijuana patients, you may not grow marijuana at home. Patients prescribed medical marijuana treatment may only grow up to five plants. Most law enforcement experts will tell you to think about smoking weed the See YEAR IN REVIEW on page 8
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
Police say teen’s murder solved, others say otherwise Since the 2016 death of Elijah Sims, his mother has been in tug-of-war with CPD over evidence, claims
Act filing by AustinTalks, Sims’ case was determined to be exceptionFile photo ally cleared in January SEEKING JUSTICE: Sharita Galloway, the mother of Elijah Sims, 2018. The investigation with state Rep. Camille Y. Lilly at the site where her son was will be reopened if CPD murdered. learns the identity of any other suspects, according anyone from the department to discuss the By ZACH CUNNING to the file. case. AustinTalks Galloway said the police never notified Galloway said during the investigation For Sharita Galloway, another holiday her that they cleared her son’s case; instead, of her son’s death she was able to develop season has come and gone without justice she said she learned when contacted by Aus- a good relationship with Detective DaquitinTalks. lante. for her son, Elijah Sims. After finding out, Galloway spent weeks She and Detective Smith, however, “didn’t Sims was a senior at Oak Park River Forest High School when he was shot in Austin last fall attempting to contact CPD and was really have a good relationship because I continuously told only a supervisor could didn’t feel like he cared as much, he didn’t on Aug. 29, 2016. Galloway said Thanksgivings are the discuss the case with her, but a supervisor show as much interest in the case,” Gallowas never available. way said. hardest. In late September, she managed to reach After Detective Daquilante was promoted, This year, “I didn’t even cook any of his favorite foods.” They were the only two peo- one of the detectives, Stephen Smith, who a new detective was assigned to the case. CPD declined to name the new detective. ple in the house who liked sweet potato pie, told her the case is still open, but said he Galloway said she tried to get in touch with she said, “but it’s gotten to the point where I couldn’t give her any more information. Detectives identified the offender, who him. can’t even chew and swallow pieces of sweet died on Dec. 16, 2016 – before charges could “I left a message for him to call me back two potato pie.” Late last summer, Galloway stood be- be brought, said Kellie Bartoli, a CPS spokes- years ago, still haven’t got that call,” she said. Elena Calzada was a victim advocate at fore about two dozen people at a gathering woman. Authorities declined to say what, if any ef- the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago in marking the fourth anniversary of her son’s fort had been made to notify the family. 2016 when Elijah was killed and worked with death. Galloway said she was told by Detective Galloway after her son’s death. She shared the pain she feels every day beCalzada, now a crisis responder for Chicause she believes his killer is still out there. Matthew Daquilante, assigned to the case “The person who shot and killed my son, at the time with Detective Smith, that police cago Survivors, said it’s a problem for more than just Elijah’s mother that police don’t they need to wake up every day like I have had identified the shooter. But, Galloway said, word on communicate with family members, and to do, but they need to wake up the street said otherwise. She that gives the impression they aren’t interbehind bars,” she said. The killer doesn’t believe the man police ested in solving cases. “deserves to wake up every day, identified is her son’s killer. Other families tell her the police stop callmiserable, like I have to wake up On the second anniversary of ing them back. “They’re tired of hearing every day, miserable. He need to her son’s death she went door- from us” is what they tell Calzada. wake up every day in jail, sufferto-door passing out flyers, with “Sometimes they’ll hear detectives say, ing, like I have to get up every Crime Stoppers. That day, a man ‘Well, we got other cases we have to work day and suffer without my son.” showed her a picture of the per- on’… so the family’s just feeling like their After four and a half years, she son who killed her son, she said. loved one was forgotten,” she said. is still fighting for Chicago Police The name fit with what the ruCalzada said she’s seen family members, to complete the investigation mors on the street had been all like Galloway, trying to share information into his death. ELIJAH SIMS along, Galloway added. with police about who may have killed their CBS reported at the time that “I said, ‘Well, could you please tell Crime loved ones, but the police don’t want to lisSims was with a group of people near the corner of Quincy Street and Lotus Avenue Stoppers? He told me ‘no.’ He said, ‘because I ten. “I don’t call as much anymore, because I when about 10 p.m. someone fired into the want to kill him myself.’” Galloway said she took the information to just get angry,” Galloway said. “I feel like crowd, striking two people. One, a 15-year-old boy, was shot in the the police herself, but was told by detectives they’re not working his case.” Authorities brushing off families brings back. The other, Elijah Sims, was shot in the they had already been given another name the healing process to a standstill “because head. Both teens were taken to Stroger Hos- and it fit with their evidence. Galloway said police also told her there’s they aren’t able to get justice for their loved pital, where Sims died in his mother’s arms evidence three people shot up the corner of ones,” Calzada said. the following morning. For Galloway, she hopes one day to get Last fall, the Chicago Police Department Quincy and Lotus that night. She said Detective Daquilante told her that justice. said in an email the case is classified as ex“My job was to protect my son and to make ceptionally cleared, which means authori- that CPD had flagged the suspects’ names ties have identified a suspect, but either the in case they get stopped or pulled over, but, sure that he’s OK, and to advocate for my suspect is dead or prosecutors said there was Galloway said, “I just can’t believe that these son. I’m going to advocate for him until juspeople haven’t been stopped in four years.” tice is brought to him.” not enough evidence to approve charges. CPD declined to identify the detectives According to the case file, which was obtained through a Freedom of Investigation currently assigned to the case or provide CONTACT: austintalks.org@gmail.com
AUSTIN WEEKLY
news Editor Michael Romain
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
Lewis school gets cultural responsiveness grant
The grant will help provide educators at the Austin school with training on how to be culturally responsive teachers AustinTalks
Leslie Lewis School of Excellence is one of 200-some Chicago Public Schools getting financial support in the midst of a school year for the way they’re dealing with COVID-19. Principal Aquabah Gonney-Buckner said the the money – the maximum $10,000 grant – will be used to provide educators at the Austin school with training on how to be culturally responsive teachers. They’re learning about the history of race and race relations to prepare themselves for the difficult conversations students are ready to have, Gonney-Buckner said. The Chicago Public Education Fund and Chicago Public Schools launched the $2.15 million grant program, named the COVID Comeback Fund, earlier this month. Qualifications for the grant were based on socioeconomic factors, how hard COVID-19 has hit a school’s nearby community and the school’s experience with remote learning. Seventy percent of the Lewis student body is Black and 30 percent is Latinx, while 80 percent of the teachers are white. Topics discussed in the teachers’ professional development sessions have included white privilege and awareness; segregation; mass incarceration; police brutality; and Black excellence. Gonney-Buckner, whose mom was a teacher and dad ran a group home, said she was raised in an environment where having indepth conversations about race with adults was the norm.
Photo provided
By SHELBY E. HAWKINS
Before becoming principal, Gonney-Buckner taught elementary school in Brooklyn and in Chicago. She said she never steered away from difficult conversations, instead tackling them head on. “I allowed my kids to ask questions, to be curious, to question the news that’s in front of them … really digging into the kids feeling ownership over their learning,” she said. Another aspect of the school’s plan has been the creation of a social/emotional learning calendar where a virtual safe space has been built for the children to feel comfortable talking about difficult subjects. At the start of the school year, teachers discussed the impact COVID-19 has had on the community and students’ families. The dialogue has shifted to Black Lives Matter and the importance of the movement. Gonney-Buckner said a lot of the questions students are asking are: “What can we do?” and “How do we get involved?” Given the many challenges of 2020, answering those questions is more difficult than ever. Students are at home and often with their caregivers all day; families are under more emotional stress, GonneyBuckner said. During the social/emotional learning block, the school has carved out time for parents to get involved in the lessons. Teachers are navigating how to bring conversations from the classroom to the students’ homes. They’ve been holding bi-weekly town hall meetings with families to hear from parents as to what’s working – and what’s not. Gonney-Bucker emphasized the importance of using this time to the best of their ability, so the school has created an action plan. Phase One was building community and tackling the hyper-visible issues of the
SUPPORT: Lewis School Principal Aquabah GonneyBuckner said the school’s grant will be used to provide educators with training on how to be culturally responsive teachers.
day. Phase Two, which they’re in now, is focusing on student voice and identity. In the third and fourth quarters, they’ll ask students to think about a topic that stood out this school year and what they’re passionate about. Then, the children will turn that topic into an action project. “I hope my students at the end of this understand how powerful they are,” GonneyBuckner said. “They’re developing their character, their integrity and who they’re going to be in this world. My hope is they remember these conversations, and that it sparks a curiosity to push themselves to learn as much as they possibly can.” Marina Chestnut-Jefferson is a mother of five. She has two girls (17 and 14) who attend ITW Speer Academy, and three boys (13, 11 and 10); the older two go to Lewis, and the youngest attends an elementary school in North Carolina. One of the obstacles she’s run into as a parent since e-learning began is having to be even more involved with her 8th grader’s school work and helping him adapt since his learning style is best suited for a classroom
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environment. Her oldest son’s grades have suffered as a result of switching to online classes. He has two different plans with his math and English teacher, who Jefferson meets with in the morning and in the afternoon to help him stay on track. “It’s a whole lot more to make sure all of my kids, especially my oldest son, is doing well. I don’t want them to end up falling behind.” In terms of having difficult conversations, Jefferson said she’s always been open with her children and encouraged them to ask questions. “My 11-year-old asked, ‘Is this happening because they don’t care about Black people?’ so I had to go pull out some books, some articles and sit with them to show them the history they don’t teach.” She said she’s completely honest with her children because what is going on now will affect them as adults. Jefferson has attended the majority of town halls to learn more about how to best approach these issues. “I feel like it’s been really good for the parents and for the staff because it’s opening up that platform that we all need to be comfortable enough to talk about what’s really happening.”
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
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T
he recent surge in carjacking has had children as young as 10 years old participating in it. When those crimes also include a gun, it is way beyond time that definitive responses should take place. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have the crop of politicians who are brave enough, morally convicted enough, or have the right kind of gray matter between their ears to call for solutions where the perpetrator has to pay a stiff price for their actions. Using very young juveniles to participate in criminal activities is nothing new. More than 25 years ago, the name Robert ‘Yummy’ Sandifer, 11, was shocking headline news. Today, the more common average age for young black criminals is 15. The question we as a community need to answer is no longer why the juveniles are doing it, but rather what price is everyone involved having to pay because of those juveniles’ involvement in adult criminal activities?
We need consequences!
I, for one, point my finger primarily at the parents. I will never forget the 15-year-old who got shot in the far northern suburb trying to steal a car. His mother went on television and professed to the world that she knows her nephews like to steal cars, but the homeowner shouldn’t have shot her son. Therein lies the foundation of the problem. We need legislation that makes the parents and the entire family pay a price when a juvenile is involved in a heinous crime. Like that of the recent killing of a retired firefighter. The first alleged suspect was a 15-year-old out of Chicago Heights. If I had my way, for a minimum of 72 hours, the custodial adult and the child would be locked together in a cell. One cot and one chair. It would be very interesting to note who gets to lay down to sleep and who has to sit the entire time. For some of these kids, being locked up with their parent might be the longest time the adult in their
ARLENE JONES
life has actually spent with them in ages. Next we need to get social services involved in a forensic evaluation of their family. Blaming the child has to be balanced with a true understanding of why the child was out there participating in a crime. A thorough investigation by social workers, psychologists, and others into the family’s lifestyle, finances, history, food purchases, etc., that will not only put them under a microscope initially, but keep them there for a minimum of one year should be part of the price the entire family has to pay. Currently when kids get involved in a crime, and with so many last names being in the family, it’s pretty much a hidden piece of news. But with new legislation, the consequences of the juvenile’s actions will affect everyone living under the roof
with them. And let that not just apply to juveniles. Anyone harboring criminals over age 18 under their roof can also be subject to that same sort of invasive scrutiny into their lives. Certain folks need their business minded by others. Something has to jump start the heads of households to become just that. The head! The need for the return of accountability for one’s actions that includes consequences is real. It is not a sin or a crime for black legislators to begin to offer law and order legislation to fight what is sadly right now a predominantly black problem! The United Negro College Fund motto, “A mind is a terrible thing to lose,” is more accurate than ever, as we lose and waste young minds to criminal behaviors
CONTACT: michael@austinweeklynews.com
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
New grocery store primed to be oasis in West Side food desert
Forty Acres Fresh Market’s plans to build first brick-andmortar location could help fill vacuum left by closure of stores like Save A Lot By PASCAL SABINO Block Club Chicago
A neighborhood grocery store is set to be built in a West Side food desert that recently lost one of its only supermarkets. Forty Acres Fresh Market recently secured the property at 5713 W. Chicago Ave., the site of a former Salvation Army, for its first brick-and-mortar location. Forty Acres has hosted grocery pop-ups and sold at West Side farmers markets since 2018 to provide much-needed fresh food to Austin residents. The startup also offers a produce box service that delivers groceries to customers citywide. But organizers have long wanted a permanent site. They were able to buy the Chicago Avenue property in partnership with Westside Health Authority, with funding from the Christopher Family Foundation, the Lumpkin Family Foundation and a state minority-owned business grant. It will be about a year before the store will be ready to open since the space will need to be rehabbed. Once complete, the full-service market will fill the shortage of mid-size
grocery options, or neighborhood markets where residents can pick up essentials between trips to large supermarkets, founder Liz Abunaw said. “It’s the store you run into on your way home from work … and you pick up a graband-go meal or the ingredients for tonight’s dinner,” Abunaw said. A mile north of the Forty Acres site, one of Austin’s only grocery stores, Save A Lot, shut down in December after giving little notice to neighbors. That closure widened the gap in food access for many West Siders, compelling residents to leave their neighborhoods or even head out of the city to Oak Park to find food. The lack of access to food is a struggle that falls especially hard on seniors and people who don’t have a car, Abunaw said. For most grocery stores, a majority of their business comes from people who live within a half-mile of the store, Abunaw said. But in the area surrounding the forthcoming Forty Acres location, there are no supermarkets that close. The nearest full-service grocery is the Pete’s Fresh Market at 259 W. Lake St., about a mile away in Oak Park. “Neighborhoods with fewer grocery stores … have worse health outcomes: higher rates of diet-related illness, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease. These are all far more prevalent where food is less available,” Abunaw said. When the Save A Lot closed, many neighbors felt neglected by the national chain. City officials said company leaders never sought their support to stay open. State Rep. La Shawn Ford said the sudden
FRESH ALTERNATIVE: Liz Abunaw, the owner-operator of Forty Acres Fresh Market, has plans to open a brick-andmortar store on Chicago Avenue in Austin. File Photo
and unexplained closure spoke to the “lack of commitment” many corporations have toward low-income, Black communities. “We need to bring in small business owners to do grocery stores … people that care about the neighborhood,” Ford said. Unlike big-box chain stores, neighborhood markets tend to be more committed to the community, Abunaw said. Small grocers are more likely to hire locally, build positive relationships with residents and support other local businesses so money gets “recycled within the community,” she said. “When a neighborhood has grown you … you’re more likely to feel appreciation for that place,” Abunaw said. “They were with you when you had nothing, when it was just an idea you were trying out. So of course you feel more committed.” Westside Health Authority was an ideal community partner in the venture, organizers said. Much of Westside’s work promotes healthy lifestyles, including culturally relevant food demonstrations and programs like VeggieRx. Those efforts will amplify the benefits of having a local grocery store and the partnership will help Forty Acres succeed, Executive Director Morris Reed said. “It is very important to have a locally
based retailer, but also a retailer that has a partnership with the community organization to design the store, and to have products and to have services that reflect the needs of the community,” Reed said. The store could help revitalize the Chicago Avenue commercial area, known as Soul City Corridor, by bringing in more foot traffic that will benefit nearby shops, Reed said. The grocery store “will be a model for more local investment and attract even outside investment as well,” he said. “These are local dollars … that will circulate right there in the neighborhood,” he said. While the grocery store is in development, Forty Acres will continue to serve the West Side through pop-up markets and affordable produce deliveries. “From a social infrastructure standpoint, a grocery store is part of the community,” Abunaw said. “That’s community cohesiveness and social cohesion that makes the neighborhood better to live in. It makes them safer.” Pascal Sabino is a Report for America corps member covering Austin, North Lawndale and Garfield Park for Block Club Chicago.
VACCINE
Researchers let the disease go untreated in study participants — despite having access to a cure — and didn’t provide them free health care, as they’d been promised. Participants went blind, mentally deteriorated and died, as did some of their wives and children, who also contracted the disease. Today, Black people are still facing disparities in health care: Black Chicagoans have lower life expectancies than white residents, dying an average of 8.8 years earlier, and the maternal death rate for Black women in Chicago is more than 2.5 times higher than their white counterparts. Majority Black neighborhoods are also less likely to have access to affordable medical care and nutritious food, which contributes to chronic health problems. And Black communities frequently grapple with hospitals that serve their communities being closed. “It’s not just something that happened 60
Confronting misinformation from page 1 resident Tina Augustus said. “I know this disease is ravaging our community. So if I want my community to be healthy, I will have to consider the shot.”
‘It’s Not Just 60 Years Ago’ Many are still mindful of the inhumane and government-led Tuskegee experiments that were conducted over 40 years. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Public Health Service from 1932-1972, examined the effects of untreated syphilis in hundreds of poor Black sharecroppers with the disease.
CONTACT: pascal@blockclubchicago.org
Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
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prove “as more vaccine is available both within hospitals, but, importantly, when we move beyond hospitals.” Outreach to target skeptics will include pairing with “trusted messengers” — like health care workers — who can explain the vaccine and spread accurate information, Arwady has said.
‘We’re Here To Debunk So Folks Can Make A Wise Decision On Their Own’
Photos by: Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/Pool and Maxwell Evans/Block Club Chicago
MOBILIZING: Opposite page, Dr. Lois Clarke, right, with Loretto Hospital, gives the COVID-19 vaccination to Barbara Shields-Johnson, a RN at Loretto at Loretto Hospital in Chicago on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. Top, Dr. Anudeep Dasaraju (in gray), a resident physician in Mercy Hospital’s emergency room, speaks out against the hospital’s planned closure outside the James R. Thompson Center. Bottom left, Elizabeth Zimnie (center), an ER nurse at Norwegian American Hospital, receives the COVID-19 vaccination administered by Dr. Abha Agrawal (left), chief medical officer at Norwegian American Hospital at Loretto Hospital in Chicago on Dec. 15, 2020. Bottom right, Dr. Allison Arwady, right, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, speaks at a press conference after five frontline medical workers received the vaccine against COVID-19 at Loretto Hospital on Dec. 15, 2020. years ago. All of this stuff is still happening right now,” said LaDarius Curtis, director of community engagement and community health with West Side United, whose work has long focused on root causes of health care inequities. “Therefore, people in the present are still going to have the same level, if not more, [of] distrust than people in the past.” The pandemic has only exacerbated the issues that have resulted in worse outcomes for Black and Latino Chicagoans. Vaccines for coronavirus don’t fix that, Draper said. “We still don’t have any grocery stores,” Draper said. “One of the reasons our area has been hit so hard is if we want anything … we have to leave our community. We have to be exposed to more people.”
Vanessa Stokes, of Austin, is frustrated the city is rolling out vaccines without resolving those core issues. The pandemic was “the perfect time for people to join together to create new systems” because the current system has failed Black communities, Stokes said. With some people now being vaccinated, the feeling of urgency over the public health crisis might evaporate — along with any impetus for creating meaningful change on the issues that facilitated the economic and medical devastation of the pandemic, Stokes said. “That’s the American way,” she said. “I really don’t think COVID is going to change anything. … They’re going to say, ‘Oh, it’s
too much work, I’m not going to do all that.’” The city’s vaccination campaign will be done through an “equity lens,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said. Just as with its coronavirus data, the city will track vaccination data by people’s race and ethnicity, age and home ZIP code. Officials will use that data when deciding where to set up vaccination sites. In the first 12 days of vaccinations, a large concentration of health care workers living in the whitest, wealthiest neighborhoods on the North Side were vaccinated, according to city data and a Sun-Times analysis. Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said she is confident the distribution will im-
At Loretto Hospital, more than 110 hospital workers have been vaccinated. Many have been talking to patients, answering questions about the vaccine and sharing their own experiences, said Afya Khan, an infectious control practitioner at Loretto. Hospital staffers have also had proactive conversations related to vaccines and consultations with residents at Loretto’s free community testing center, which has tested more than 20,000 residents for coronavirus, Khan said. In the future, the hospital plans to share fact sheets about the vaccine to further address mistrust. West Side United has a dedicated Vaccine Corps working to unpack generations of disillusionment and provide information about the vaccine. “We’re not here to tell people to take the vaccine. We’re here to debunk [misinformation] so folks can make a wise decision on their own if the vaccine is worth taking for them,” Curtis said. The pandemic’s toll on the West Side has been a test of faith, Draper said. She has lost three family members to coronavirus, so the vaccine feels like a “light at the end of a tunnel.” She has mixed feelings about the vaccine, so she plans to watch and see whether people experience side effects before deciding if she’ll get one. Augustus said she’s not sure if she’ll get the vaccine when it’s offered to her. Despite past transgressions, she said she has more faith in today’s public health officials because of the Black-led work being done to erase racist health disparities. The lead researcher responsible for developing the Moderna vaccine, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, is a Black woman. “People’s eyes and ears are open to the injustice that has happened for so many years,” Augustus said. “We’re taking [a] seat in all these different places in this country with our voice. … An African American woman played a part in saving humanity.” When considering the vaccine, Augustus said she will keep in mind the West African adinkra symbol of the sankofa: a bird with its feet planted in the ground, its body facing forward, but its head looking backward. The bird symbolizes the need for Black people to remember the past and heed the wisdom of their ancestors while stepping into the future. “I strongly believe in the sankofa bird, looking back as we’re moving forward. We definitely cannot forget. That’s how people are taking advantage of. Because when you forget, you don’t hold people’s feet to the fire,” Augustus said.
CONTACT: pascal@blockclubchi.org
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
YEAR IN REVIEW A dramatic 2020 from page 1 same way you think about drinking alcohol. February | Rev. John H. Crawford Jr., a West Side civil rights activist and trailblazer, died at 80. He was the co-founder of the West Side organization and bodyguard for Martin Luther King Jr. Crawford was a licensed minister and established FAITH, Inc., (For Action in Togetherness Holdfast), a community organization dedicated to helping ex-offenders on the West Side secure state ID cards. According to Crawford, he was part of a legislative effort to require IDOC to provide ex-offenders with temporary ID cards and other critical resources when they are released. March | The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker to shut down large gatherings and all non-essential activities across the state, leaving many West Siders hurrying to adapt to the new normal. Students across the West Side were forced to do learning online. On March 15, Chicago Public School officials announced that they would provide meals to all students in need.
April | As the pandemic raged, West Side politicians and activists began speaking out about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Blacks. First District Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson joined a group of activists and elected officials to push for a series of measures designed to address the racial divide brought on by the pandemic. By April, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Blacks, who are roughly 14 percent of the population, comprised 28 percent of the confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and accounted for around 43 percent of confirmed COVID-19-related deaths. According to Johnson, the package of reforms, called the Right to Recovery legisla-
tion, was a series of progressive proposals that at that point had not gotten much traction, but whose significance was more relevant than ever in light of the pandemic. The proposals included 20 days of paid emergency leave for all workers who need it, a moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, rent and mortgage collections, housing for homeless and lease extensions for tenants. They also included weekly payments of $750 to “all families with school children and all workers facing furloughs, layoff and reduction in hours,” among other measures. May | On May 2, Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference in West Humboldt Park to address the problem of crowded house parties held in defiance of state and city stay-at-home restrictions. The press conference happened after video footage of a crowded house party in Galewood went viral after one of the participants, Tink Purcell, of West Garfield Park, live-streamed it for 24 minutes, capturing a crowd of over 100 people. According to Chicago Sun-Times, the party was organized by Janeal Wright, the 26-year-old son of the building’s owner, Chicago Fire Department Commander Christine Matthews. During a West Garfield Park COVID-19 awareness virtual town hall on May 14, Charles Levy, of the Garfield Park Behavioral Hospital, said that he understood why youth would engage in that kind of risky behavior. “Young people are scared,” he said. “They are. It’s like they’re in jail. And that causes them to start feeling a sense of hopelessness, because they don’t know when they’re going to get out. And that tends to bring on depression.” June | The month was dominated by the fallout from the shooting of George Floyd. On May 31, a wave of looting swept through
the South and West sides, hitting the Madison/Pulaski commercial corridor in West Garfield Park, as well as several business corridors along Madison Street in Austin. Vanessa Stokes, a community activist and head of the Special Service Area 72, which encompasses the Cicero/Chicago corridor, saw what was happening within two blocks of Madison and Pulaski. “It was just insane,” she recalled at the time. “And then seeing people driving up and down the street with boxes of [goods] in their cars, and people walking with obvious new clothes and what not, it was scary.” The West Side was deeply affected by the losing, because the area doesn’t have many grocery stores and pharmacies in the first place. The Walmart in Austin was closed for months, and Walgreens closed all of its West Side locations, including the ones that weren’t looted, for weeks.
The month also saw several peaceful protests, including the June 4 march from Oak Park Village Hall, to the 15th Police District headquarters in Austin, and the June 13 march from Oak Park to West Garfield Park. July | On July 17, SEIU Illinois and Loretto Hospital agreed to a new contract, avoiding a strike scheduled for July 20. The previous contract expired in December 2019, so the new contract took effect retroactively for the entire year of 2020. It will last for another two and a half years. Major changes included a $15 an hour starting wage for all workers and regular pay increases based on seniority. Some higherlevel positions, such as behavioral health workers, would have a starting wages of $18 to $22 an hour. The contract also stipulates that employees with too many patients get paid extra, a mechanism designed to ensure
File photos
WHAT HAPPENED: A pedestrian walking on the West Side gets turned around by Chicago Police after a moment of widespread looting in the summer. Middle, Rev. John H. Crawford Jr., as a young man. Bottom, the Sears site in Galewood.
Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
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Block Club Chicago
building altogether and build a new grocery store, two retail buildings and a drivethrough restaurant, while keeping the apartment plans for the site’s east parking lot the same as Tucker’s.
the hospital maintains better levels of staffing. August | On Aug. 26, the Chicago Board of Education voted 4-2 to approve the new one-year, $12 million School Resource Officer contract with the Chicago Police Department, capping a summer of protests and attempts to end the contract early. The program had been controversial for years. While supporters claimed that it provides security, there had been growing concerns that police officers wind up needlessly arresting students. There were also several high-profile incidents where officers used force against relatively minor infractions. The Chicago Inspector General told the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Public Safety on July 2 that, since 2015, out of all incidents where SROs used force, 81 percent involved African-American students and 14 percent involved Latinx students. And out of all arrests made since January 2017, 72.8 percent involved African-Americans. Following the Aug. 26 vote, Ald. Michael Scott (24th), who chairs the city council’s Committee on Education, said that, although CPS needed more counselors and support services, removing the police officers altogether could potentially make some school communities feel less safe. For the time being, all Chicago public schools continue to teach remotely, so resource officers are not in use, but the issue may resurface if the city proceeds with its plans to switch to hybrid learning in February 2021. September | By September, nearly all of the signs that once bore the Douglas Park name had been removed, the culmination of tireless work by the students at the Village Leadership Academy, who had been organizing to rename the park since 2017. The students were able to pressure the
Chicago Park District Board to vote to strip North Lawndale largest park of its original namesake — Stephen A. Douglas, the Civil War-era U.S. senator who supported expanding slavery across the country — in order to rename it Douglass Park, after the famous Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his wife Anna.
Sears store, announced that it was looking to build more retail, while keeping some of the residential components outlined in an earlier redevelopment plan. As previously reported, Seritage Holdings, which inherited the ownership of the site when it was spun off from Sears, sold several of its Chicago properties to Novak Construction. Seritage had previously worked with Chicago-based Tucker Development to turn the Sears complex into a mixed-use development with retail space and upscale apartments. Novak now proposes to demolish the Sears
November | West Siders reacted to the Nov. 3 Presidential Election with a collective sigh of relief that it was finally over and that President Donald Trump might be on his way out of office. Most West Siders Austin Weekly News interviewed before and after the election expressed exasperation with both political parties and the political process, but said they were even more tired of Trump’s character. “It feels like I’m not voting for my political beliefs,” Lou Maheffy said. “I’m voting more for a person, for the behavior of the current president. His behavior overshadows his politics. Whether you agree with his positions or not. You can’t agree with his behavior as a leader.” Carlos Ortega, of Galewood, said that the choice, for him was clear. “It’s a historic election, you know?” I voted Democratic,” he said. “You know what, it’s hard to say good things about the other candidate. Just based on integrity, I had to go with Biden.”
December | In December, administrators at Loretto Hospital in Austin announced that they were selected to be among the sites that will test individuals taking the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines. The hospital is one of a few dozen safety-net community hospitals in Chicago, serving primarily low-income and uninsured patients. October | After the pandemic touched “Too often in our past, we’ve seen vaccines down in March, construction work on the or drug regimens come to market that didn’t old Sears at North and Harlem in Galewood work as expected on minority populations, Park slowed to a halt. In October, Novak because they weren’t appropriately tested Construction, the new owner of the former on these groups,” according to a statement Crain’s obtained by Dr. Lois Clarke, Loretto’s director of clinical research. “If we, as a community, want to benefit from a COVID-19 vaccine, it’s time to step up and make sure we’re being representatively included in the trials.” The news of Loretto’s status as a test site came as community leaders were demanding that the federal government prioritize Black communities in the process of distributing the COVID-19 vaccine. In November,, a group of West Side faith leaders convened a press conference at the JLM Abundant Life Center, 2622 W. Jackson Blvd. The leaders were particularly referencing the distribution of the initial batches of the COVID-19 vaccine that will soon be given to essential healthcare File photos workers and people working and living in long-term care faDEMOCRACY ON TRIAL: The sign of what was then Douglas Park. Some residents took it upon themcilities.
selves to add an ’s’ to the sign before the park was formally changed to Douglass Park, in honor of the Black abolitionist. Bottom, West Side residents line up to vote in November.
CONTACT: michael@austinweeklynews.com
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Austin Weekly News, January 6, 2021
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LEGAL NOTICE STATE OF ILLINOIS) COUNTY OF COOK )ss Circuit Court of Cook County, County Department, Domestic Relations Division. In re the marriage of MELODY JACKSON, Petitioner and JOHN W. JACKSON JR., Respondent, Case No. 2105 D 430340. The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed, notice is hereby given to you, the above named Respondent, that a Petition has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by the Petitioner, for Dissolution of Marriage and for other relief; and that said suit is now pending. Now, therefore, unless you, the said Respondent, file your response to said Petition or otherwise make your appearance therein, in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Room 802, Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, in the City of Chicago, Illinois, on or before January 22, 2021, default may be entered against you at any time after that day, and a judgment for Dissolution of Marriage entered in accordance with the prayer of said Petition. DOROTHY A. BROWN, Clerk. Published in Austin Weekly News 12/23, 12/30/2020, 1/6/2021
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