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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Matt Moore

The story behind the Altgeld Gardens Memorial Wall, R. Kelly charges dropped and more in your Chicago news roundup

The Altgeld Gardens Memorial Wall holds several hundred names of deceased loved ones. (Rich Cahan/WBEZ)

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a five-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

— Matt Moore (@MattKenMoore​​​​​​​)

This afternoon will be mostly sunny with a high near 15 degrees with wind chill values as low as -6. Tonight will be clear with a low near 5 and wind chill values as low as -8. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high near 29.

Top story

Altgeld Gardens Memorial Wall’s place in Chicago history is clear, its future less so

One hundred and 30 blocks south of the Loop, there’s a stretch of brick wall, painted yellow, covered with hundreds and hundreds of hand-lettered names.

Some of the bricks are chipped. Some of the paint is faded. But to people who live — or once lived — in the Altgeld Gardens public housing community, this is their Memorial Wall, a place of family record for lost loved ones and a place of history.

A young man stops to scan the names. 

“This is my grandmama name right here, Leola Lockett,” he says, declining to give his name. “She was a beautiful lady. These are all the people who’s raised up out here, who was part of the community. I miss ’em all.”

Baron Johnson grew up in Altgeld Gardens and comes back every year for an “old-timers” picnic. He gets sentimental recalling his time there: the baseball teams, late-night roller-skating in a school gymnasium, the annual flower festival, a village in which people looked out for each other’s kids.

“And everybody, when they come up to visit, they recognize the names and their memories,” Johnson says. “So the wall is kind of like a historic monument for everybody who used to live or still lives in Altgeld Gardens.”

Still, parts of the wall’s history is uncertain, and its future is even more unclear. The Memorial Wall sits in the breezeway of a dilapidated, privately owned commercial building at the center of the community. That building has been in demolition court for the last few years, and the wall’s future is tied up with it.

Altgeld Gardens is the most isolated of Chicago’s public housing communities. Completed in the mid-1940s, the complex was a racially segregated development for African Americans — war workers in the nearby armaments industry and returning veterans. In contrast to the high-rises that the Chicago Housing Authority later built, its original 1,500 units were two-story brick rowhouses laid out on curving streets, each with its own small front yard. The Gardens, as it’s often called, had a suburban feel.

At the heart of the Altgeld development was a privately owned commercial building that for decades housed a collection of Black-owned businesses: a drugstore, a shoe-repair shop, the Funky London lounge, a barber shop, the Garden of Eden beauty shop and, most important, a grocery store. This unusual building was designed by brothers George Keck and William Keck, the Keck & Keck architectural team who dreamed up the “House of Tomorrow” for Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair. Built in the modernist style, this blocklong building had a swooping, cantilevered canopy and curving, glassy front wall. It served as a kind of town center, where people shopped and socialized.

Residents called the building Up-Top, and the Memorial Wall took root there in a covered breezeway that runs through the building.

WBEZ’s Linda Paul has more on the wall here.

More news you need

Elections 2023

Valuable tool: Sun-Times/WBEZ 2023 Voter Guide

With the help of our colleagues at WBEZ, we recently published our voter guide for the upcoming municipal election, where you can find your ward and police district — and compare candidates. Our reporters pursued every aldermanic and police district council candidate — 284 in total — about their top priorities.

You can access the guide here, then enter your address to look up your ward and police district and to see who’s running in ballot order, complete with position statements submitted by the candidates. Plus, we’ve got exclusive video interviews with the nine candidates vying for the mayor’s office.

And in case you missed it, check out our mayoral questionnaire, where we have the answers to 23 questions that we asked each candidate. You can take our questionnaire yourself and see how your answers compare to the candidates here.

A bright one

Historic Black publisher raises money after flood damages property

Third World Press Foundation, one of the nation’s oldest independent and prestigious Black publishing companies, has called 7822 S. Dobson Ave. in Grand Crossing home for 35 of its 55-year history.

But a flood causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage has threatened the stability and financial viability of the company, the publisher said.

Haki Madhubuti founded Third World Press in 1967, from his basement-level apartment on the South Side. Now 80, Madhubuti built the company into a premier destination for Black authors.  Throughout the years, Third World has become the publishing home for prolific Black writers including Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of Illinois Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as Angela Jackson, who became the Poet Laureate of Illinois in 2020, poet Margaret Walker and novelist Sam Greenlee.

Madhubuti was in Cleveland on Dec. 9 when he got a call telling him the news — a pipe had burst under the building. The basement was flooded to the knees, and books were floating everywhere, he said. Two large dumpsters were filled with damaged books, Madhubuti said. Repairs took weeks, causing the nonprofit to lose crucial donation time during the Christmas and Kwanzaa seasons, which typically make up more than 25% of their annual revenue. 

Third World Press Foundation, at 7822 S. Dobson Ave. in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, has started a GoFundMe for damages experienced after a pipe burst beneath the building. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

This prompted a suggestion from a board member to start a GoFundMe to raise money for the damages. Madhubuti, who said he had never heard of the concept, obliged.

“We’ve never done anything like that before,” he said. “But we were in such a critical shape that I said we’ll pretty much do anything now because after 55 years, nothing that hit us like this before.”

The company’s losses totaled $200,000, but the GoFundMe’s goal was set at $95,000 — Madhubuti thought the six-figure total would “scare people off.” The result was astounding. The GoFundMe reached the $95,000 goal within two weeks, and is still climbing.

“It was like a movement,” Madhubuti said.

As of Jan. 30, the fundraiser has received over $115,000. 

Mariah Rush has more on Third World Press Foundation here.

From the press box

Your daily question☕

What’s something about Chicago winters that’s actually underrated?

Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday we asked you: What would you say is Chicago’s crown jewel? Here’s what some of you said...

“The Lakefront Trail. Ensuring public access to the lake is a truly unique and wonderful thing.” — Dan Hamilton

“Architecture. Chicago’s beautiful design is known virtually worldwide. I once met a person from abroad who referred to Chicago as the ‘world capital of architecture.’” — Craig Barner

“Wrigley Field. So much history.” — Donna Hart

“I’d say our Lake Shore Drive. Take a drive at night and the near-perfect alignment of not only the businesses but the housing set up on the drive with illumination accenting the symmetry. I haven’t been everywhere but we’re a tough act to follow!” — Christopher Mathews

“The crown jewel of Chicago is its Lakefront — you can walk, bike, run, swim, fish, fly a kite, jog, do yoga, exercise, sunbathe, ski, ride in a boat, have a picnic, learn to use the trampoline, get something to eat, photograph people and nature or just sit and take in the beauty while talking with your sweetie.” — Gene Tenner

“For me, it’s the Music Box Theater. It is my favorite place in the city and always has a special energy at its many unique programs, whether showing new releases on film, screening classic favorites, or showing lesser-known films to a new audience. It was also recently on Time Out’s 50 most beautiful cinemas in the world, so that doesn’t hurt.” — Cairo Dye

“Downtown Chicago. There are so many aspects to it, anyone can find something to enjoy. Architecture, nature, museums, parks, theater, sports, and arts, it’s all there. Great for people-watching too.” — Christine Bock

“You’d have to say the Chicago Symphony Orchestra remains a civic crown jewel. Still a top three ensemble the world over.” — Michael Vicari

“The Museum of Science and Industry.” — Norine Kehila

Thanks for reading the Chicago Sun-Times Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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