Dear Zoe, Thankyou for this extraordinary narrative of your experience. I deeply appreciate it.. xxx Isobel Bishop Sent from my iPhone
On 5 Apr 2018, at 4:04 am, Zoe Barley via OE <oe@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 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 says Austin and Lawndale.
Here's a reflection on the riots.
Here's an article 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
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