[Oe List ...] I'm remembering what happened when MLK died

[Shelley Hahn]

That is so interesting, Zoe.  I have no doubt your story is quite accurate,
as mine is thru the memory of a 7-year-old.  My memory is that my parents
carried Marsha and me down to your 1st floor apt in 341 during the night.
I woke up in your apt with Gwyn and Kristen looking out the window at the
fires all around.  I remember (or think I remember) running across to the
hospital and hearing gunfire all around.  I remember sitting in the halls
of the hospital and I remember the National Guard in the neighborhood when
we went over to campus in the morning.  At least I that's what I think I
remember.  I had no idea Kristen was ever missing!  At least I don't
remember that.  Shortly after the riots Marsha and I were sent to stay with
colleagues in the suburbs (Oak Park), as I think was the case with all the
children?  I remember going back to Leif Ericson a week or two later and
being taunted.

Please don't take what I'm saying as anything other than my experience:
Fifth City was not a nice place to grow up!  The Student House at its worse
will never compare to how scared I was in Fifth City.

Sorry for taking the thread away from MLK ... but that's where it took me.

Shelley Hahn

On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 2:04 PM, Zoe Barley via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> Thanks, so much, Herman.
>
> We had gathered the night of the assassination with neighborhood
> colleagues and sang We Shall Overcome and Take my Hand, Precious Lord. The
> next day there were courses to be taught  across the country as well as at
> 3444.   I was teaching an RSI in Emmetsburg, Iowa, along with three other
> Order members. Friday night we got a call from the Boston House telling us
> that Chicago had been burned out. We each had spouses and young children
> there. The local Iowans did not know who Huntley and Brinkley were when we
> hoped to get news.  We called the main Chicago desk - and miracle of
> miracles someone answered.  So we learned a little of what had happened on
> the campus. We finished the courses and headed home Sunday. We had been
> warned that no cab would take us into Fifth City. We went to a North Shore
> colleague's house where others were gathered until we could get into the
> city. I had been told that our younger daughter, Kristin, was missing - she
> had not showed up in the hospital. At the house I learned she had been
> found, having been put in a car and taken out of the city.
>
> I've written about the whole experience as I'm sure others have also. Can
> share more if anyone's interested.  Our personal distress was so much less
> than what the people of Fifth City experienced.
>
> Zoe Barley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Herman Greene via OE
> Sent: Apr 4, 2018 11:38 AM
> To: OE Listserv
> Cc: Herman Greene
> Subject: [Oe List ...] I'm remembering what happened when MLK died
>
> Here's a good current article
> <http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/riots-chicago-1968-mlk/> with
> pictures and sound in the *Chicago Tribute.*
>
> This article has it right that North Lawndale and East Garfield Park (of
> which Fifty City, now recognized as a sub-neighborhood of E Garfield Park,
> is a part) were hardest hit. The Wikipedia article
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Chicago_riots>says Austin and
> Lawndale.
>
>
> Here's a reflection on the riots.
> <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-met-martin-luther-king-riots-chicago-kass-20180403-story.html>
>
> Here's an article
> <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-kingriots-story-story.html>
> from 1968.
>
> My memory is that I first heard about the death of MLK in RFK's speech but
> I'm not sure.
>
> The next day, as I remember it, I did my usual commute from the Westside
> to the University of Chicago on the el, an even more scary commute than
> usual.
>
> That night all hell broke loose. Joy and I were baby sitting. It was a
> Friday evening and there was a course being given on black history with
> many black people from St. Louis. The room we were in was an upper floor
> with a view to the west. We could see fires being lit one after another
> getting closer and closer to us.
>
>
>
> We remember the fires that were lit in our building and the hurried
> instructions for us to leave the building.  The people at the black
> history course perhaps wisely fled.
>
> People in the Order assembled in the basement of the hospital next door.
>
> Late at night we returned to the building and sat in an upper hallway with
> the lights out.
>
> It was surreal.
>
> The first story above rightly states that these neighborhoods were never
> rebuilt and are filled with empty lots. This is not to say there have not
> been many changes and positive developments as well.
>
> I just looked up North Lawndale in Wikipedia. The average family income
> there today is $22,000.
> In East Garfield Park it is $21,000.
>
> Herman
>
>
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> Herman F. Greene
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> hfgreenenc at gmail.com
>
>
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>
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>
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>
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