Resident leaders said they would fight a proposed CHA policy that would allow the agency to get reports from teachers and other school personnel on the conduct of school children whose parents are public housing tenants.

Francine Washington, Washington Park Scattered Site president, told Residents’ Journal she was upset after the CHA proposed the policy at a public hearing on March 29 at the CHA’s Charles A. Hayes Family Investment Center.

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We are thrilled to announce the new season of “RJ TV,” our live, call-in program over the CAN TV network. “RJ TV” focuses on issues of concern to low-income youths and families, and provides viewers throughout Chicagoland with the chance to share their perspectives. The new season begins Monday, July 6, at 6:30 p.m. over cable channel 21, and will run for 12 weeks at the same time. A longtime partner of We The People Media’s, CAN TV provides non-profit organizations, elected officials and others with incredible opportunities to broadcast to millions of viewers.
If you have any queries or suggestions for future segment discussion topics please email Ethan Michaeli at ethan@wethepeoplemedia.org or Mary C. Johns at mary@wethepeoplemedia.org

For a complete schedule and descriptions of CAN TV programs Click here

The last time I saw Izora Davis, a We The People Media board member, neighborhood activist and my good friend, was during a black-out that left much of the South Side without power on the first day of August.

Izora Davis

Izora was leaning on her walker in the heat in front of 3983 S. Lake Park, a high-rise public housing building that she had saved more than a decade before.

When the electricity failed the previous evening, Izora and her neighbors were evacuated from the building by the fire department.

They stood around in the dark for hours until city officials working with Commonwealth Edison decided that repairs would still be going on for some time, and offered to take all the blacked-out South Siders to a hotel where they would be given food and drink.

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The Little Village High School, 3120 S. Kostner Ave., opened in September 2005 after parents waited years for it to be built as promised by the Board of Education. But after just one semester, the school of four small schools located in the citys Latino community had already become the subject of debate.

Little Village High School, 3120 S. Kostner Ave., was a recent subject of debate between Little Village residents living outside the school’s boundaries and those living in the predominantly African American North Lawndale community, whose children also attend the school. The school is home to four charter schools. Photo by Clemolyn "Pennie" Brinson

According to Jaime De Leon, the new communities program director of the Little Village Community Development Corporation, a number of Latino parents solicited the help of state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-12) to establish a referendum to re-draw the schools attendance boundaries. The boundaries are east of Pulaski, west of Kenneth near Cicero, north of 16th Street, and south of 33rd Street. The parents, who live in Little Village but outside the attendance boundaries, want their children to attend the beautiful new school, but say that African American students who live in the community of North Lawndale are taking up the space.
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Around town and around the nation, many voices have been crying out for justice regarding the issues of illegal immigration.

At a massive march on May 1 in Chicago, hundreds of thousands of undocumented illegal aliens and their advocates marched and rallied demanding labor and civil rights, as well as to convince U.S. congressional leaders to give them amnesty for their illegal entries into America.

These Mexican undocumented workers were among many other illegal immigrants who demanded better treatment from the U.S. government and their employers during a rally for immigration reform in Union Park on May 1. Photo by Mary C. Johns

RJ attended the march and interviewed both leaders and marchers. Later, RJ also attended a rally held by a group of ex-offenders and others who protested against the legalization of the illegal immigrants.

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For over two decades, up to 200 African American men were tortured and abused at the hands of former Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge and other law enforcers, according to a recently released criminal report by special federal investigators.

Like something out of a bad, scary movie, one former prisoner after another told their horror stories in the 292-page Burge report. They told investigators how they were tortured and humiliated at the Chicago Police Department’s Area 2 lock up, then located at 91st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, from the 1970s through the 1980s.
After a four-year investigation which cost millions of dollars, the special federal prosecutors handling the case announced the results on a hot day in mid-July. They confirmed reports that actual torture of inmates occurred at the hands of Burge and other police officers at the time. Burge was fired from the police force for misconduct in 1991. But the special prosecutors stated at a press conference when they released the report that no criminal charges could be filed against Burge or any of the other police officers who tortured people because the statute of limitations had expired.
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On Wednesday, June 21, 2006, Residents’ Journal Editor-in-Chief Mary C. Johns and Assistant Editor Beauty Turner were mistreated by Chicago police officers.

On that day, Johns and Turner were among many reporters from multiple media outlets covering a massive police operation in the Dearborn Homes public housing development.

Officers from several local and federal law enforcement agencies were in Dearborn Homes that day after a number of people died from using heroin which had a potentially fatal additive, and reports indicated that the heroin was purchased in Dearborn Homes.

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For Black History Month historical figure Frederick Douglass was portrayed by Kevin McIlvaine, former Harlan High School student, actor, singer, and educator, during a special event February 11-13 at the Field Museum. Frederick Douglass was a runaway slave who eventually became an abolitionist and founder of The North Star, an anti-slavery newspaper in the 1800s.

WVON’s Cliff Kelley hosted the event. The Apostolic Church Choir of Chicago accompanied McIlvaine, singing several gospel renditions such as “Let My People Go,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “We Shall Overcome.”
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I discovered an organization that is providing employment services for people who need it badly. The Michael Barlow Center on Chicago’s West Side is helping ex-offenders find jobs and places to live. The Barlow Center, which was dedicated on April 22, 2005, is a part of St. Leonard’s Ministries, located at 2120 West Warren Blvd.

St. Leonard’s Ministries helps inmates, women and men, with a place to stay, training and support as they re-enter society. They help ex-offenders to rebuild their lives and get a chance to make a buck. With the Barlow Center, they are expanding their services by opening new programs, including two new buildings where the residents will live and learn. One is a five-story high building where the residents will sleep. I learned this by taking a tour of the facilities after my interviews.
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