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| Shermann Dilla Thomas |
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Chicagoan. He lived at 1550 S. Hamlin with his wife and their four children. Coretta Scott King remembered the apartment building as "dingy ... no lights in the hall, one dim bulb at the head of the stairs," with a hallway reeking of urine.
They moved in Jan. 26, 1966, and lived there, off and on, for about a year. Long enough to count — though I suppose that depends on who's doing the counting and how expert that person is at the advanced Chicago art of welcoming in the people they think belong, and keeping out those who, in their estimation, don't.
With King's time here in mind and his holiday uncomfortably sharing Monday with the second inauguration of Donald Trump, I visited his old stomping ground by hitching a ride on a King-focused private bus tour that TikTok historian Shermann Dilla Thomas conducted for United Way of Metro Chicago.
If there's one thing that sets Thomas's tours apart — alongside his deep knowledge and warm personality — is that the past never stays past. Right off the bat, he drew a line from King's time to our own.
"Today we're here to talk about Dr. King's time in Chicago," Thomas began. "The thing that brings him to Chicago is housing. It's crazy to think that almost 60 years later we're still dealing with housing issues related to segregation, inadequate housing for the poor, lack of public housing, absentee landlords, people who hold onto vacant lots and dilapidated properties and don't do anything about them."
The tour stopped at the Stone Temple Baptist Church, a former Romanian synagogue on West Douglas Boulevard.
"This is where King did a ton of time doing his Chicago Freedom campaign," said Thomas. "Every year the folks connected with Skokie's Holocaust Museum build sukkahs in North Lawndale to continue the tradition. That's how you build community."
The best and worst of the city freely mix — Thomas pointed out the beelove cafe, a sparkling facility featuring local honey, directly across the street from the Chicago Police Department's notorious "Black Site."
"Thousands of Black and brown kids have been taken in that building without due process and held for days being tortured," Thomas said.
Next stop, the old Sears Homan Square campus.
With King's time here in mind and his holiday uncomfortably sharing Monday with the second inauguration of Donald Trump, I visited his old stomping ground by hitching a ride on a King-focused private bus tour that TikTok historian Shermann Dilla Thomas conducted for United Way of Metro Chicago.
If there's one thing that sets Thomas's tours apart — alongside his deep knowledge and warm personality — is that the past never stays past. Right off the bat, he drew a line from King's time to our own.
"Today we're here to talk about Dr. King's time in Chicago," Thomas began. "The thing that brings him to Chicago is housing. It's crazy to think that almost 60 years later we're still dealing with housing issues related to segregation, inadequate housing for the poor, lack of public housing, absentee landlords, people who hold onto vacant lots and dilapidated properties and don't do anything about them."
The tour stopped at the Stone Temple Baptist Church, a former Romanian synagogue on West Douglas Boulevard.
"This is where King did a ton of time doing his Chicago Freedom campaign," said Thomas. "Every year the folks connected with Skokie's Holocaust Museum build sukkahs in North Lawndale to continue the tradition. That's how you build community."
The best and worst of the city freely mix — Thomas pointed out the beelove cafe, a sparkling facility featuring local honey, directly across the street from the Chicago Police Department's notorious "Black Site."
"Thousands of Black and brown kids have been taken in that building without due process and held for days being tortured," Thomas said.
Next stop, the old Sears Homan Square campus.
"This was an anchoring space," Thomas said. "What makes them leave? King's assassination. ... Dr. King was the powderkeg. King gets assassinated, there were riots here, and Sears decides too take this expansive campus and put it all in one building, the Sears Tower
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Thomas is totally wrong about why Sears left the West Side. Sears had offices scattered throughout the Chicago area & wanted to consolidate them into one building, which Sears Tower did. As for the huge catalog plant leaving, that's because Sears was run by idiots who shut down all of their catalog operations nationally, just as the internet was being created & the executives were so short sighted, they never understood the changes in shopping that were happening. Plus, having been in that Tower Store many times, my aunt lived around the corner, worked at Sears so we also were to get her 10% discount on many things,, the first one Sears ever opened, it was a rabbit warren of dozens of separated rooms, each separated by a huge fire door. It was a number of multi story warehouses, now considered extremely inefficient. Sears also had a huge modern warehouse on Archer, just west of Cicero. They closed that one too. The big three story parking garage they built for the Tower Store & the catalog plant employees also was designed to have a 20 story addition added to it, I was told by a Sears employee at the time. That's gone too.
ReplyDeleteAmazon is now what Sears used to be!
I forgot to add, Sears also wanted a prestige building, which is why they built the world's tallest building & didn't have a mortgage on it, they paid cash to build it, $150 million out of profits. I believe they sold it for over $900 million.
Deletei also remember the huge backups on the East Bound Congress Expressway at Independence Blvd, in the mornings, as all the Sears employees from the Western suburbs were going to work & that was the nearest exit.
My parents lived in the 3400 block of W. Monroe from 1941 to 1954. Before that, my mother, aunt, and grandmother lived in the same apartment. I lived there until I was six. You could see the huge neon letters on the tower, the ones that spelled out the word SEARS, from our third-floor living room windows. One of the earliest childhood memories I have was seeing that sign every night. Dimly remember going to the store with my mother and kid sister. It was so vast that it was beyond the comprehension of a little boy.
DeleteGreat to hear more from Dilla! It's interesting how history is often looked at and taught as something almost fictional, some stories, some things that happened "a long time ago, in a galaxy far away", happened to someone else. But these events shape our current reality, they refuse to go under the carpet, in many ways they are still in progress, still causing pain.
ReplyDeleteOne example is each wave of immigrants despising the waves following them. Still very much in progress. I'm in a facebook group of Soviet immigrants. Many of them share Republican xenophobia, railing against "open borders" and H-1B visas. It boggles my mind. Harari's "Sapiens" helps explain it somewhat - we've basically evolved to extend empathy only to the immediate clan. Hard to go against a couple million years of history.
Informative and thought-provoking - the bonus is in the related commentary.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get a day, you stop caring about the other 364.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get a month, you stop caring about the other 11.
I listened to Heather Cox Richardson's January 14th, 2025 piece and her closing line struck me particularly hard. "It’s as if the Confederates’ descendants have captured the government of the United States."
I love this story because it talks about the history of the city. It talks about the history of our nation. It talks about the good that comes out of the bad (and the bad that comes out of the good).
If we didn't have a day devoted to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would we talk about him more? I doubt it. But i do think we as americans -- black, brown, white, red, yellow, blue, green... -- accept the status quo as good enough, way too often.
i'm one of the Italians but have no memory of being mistreated by the Irish, or germans or anyone else. not that it didn't happen. its just that it didn't happen to me. I dont dwell on it having happened to my ancestors . i'm an American no pride in being of Italian heritage . from what I understand my grand parents lived on goose island. one of the last families. this was in the 30s. no indoor plumbing. they were poor. but they could change their own light bulbs and wash the smell of urine out of the hallway and put up a sign commemorating Christopher Columbus without asking the city to do it. we didnt and dont play the victim . we may have been discriminated against but we married the germans and the Irish and together built this country to what it is today.
ReplyDeleteI for one am happy to have the new immigrants follow along the same path of hard work and self sufficiency. wherever they come from and the majority do
so how is it the vast majority of African Americans can't do the same? after all this time. you live in the richest most powerful country in the world and kill each other in the filthy streets of your neighborhoods. yes discrimination exists. buts its not an excuse to not work hard and have pride in your community and self respect. dilla makes it sound like we whites are doing this to them. you are doing this to yourselves. stop blaming others for your own deficiencies. ive lived in African American neighborhoods most of my life and do now. do whites make you engage in blacktivity?
the reverend dr. Martin Luther king jr. should not be a chapter in the narrative of the horrible things done to blacks. yes I realize he was assassinated and so was Jesus. and his followers rose up to be successful in the face of repression. folks dont follow kings lead and live by his message. they make him a martyr to the cause of their victimhood. .
do many whites have advantages in our society? of course. have they always throughout history? no. they gained these advantages and its up to black folk to lift themselves and their community up and stop beating each other down
harsh yes but the truth hurts
It didn't happen to you because you're not 150 years old.
DeleteAnd you know what else hurts? Stupidity. Find another blog to share your thoughts on.
Steve, I don't know what mental utopia you believe your ancestors embraced struggling against their poverty, but my husband's Italian and Polish family, many who found ways out remembered the many prejudices, injustices and hatreds throughout their lives. And taught us not to forget. Nor forget they did not emerge on their own.
DeleteI think Mr. S vetted and posted Steve's rant to show us a prime example of the sort of bushwah he gets every goddamn day...the bigotry and the racism and the hate...that never sees the light of day.
DeleteAnd a reply to an MLK post, yet. Thanks, Mr. S, for the jarring reminder of what could easily slither in...if you let it. Thanks for keeping it out. Anyone who wants that crap can go to...Farcebook.
"from what I understand" "the vast majority of African Americans" in this benighted country faced a level of discrimination that could not be ameliorated by changing a light bulb. Have "many whites" always had huge "advantages in our society" over African-Americans? Uh, "no" is not the answer to that question.
DeletePerhaps you've never heard of slavery, lynching, sundown towns or red-lining. Look them up. They were "harsh yes but the truth hurts."
Steve,
DeleteIf you read the article, you sure missed the point. "Sometimes . . . you find this line where folks come from this same struggle, they remember that it wasn’t always nice for them. So they’re willing to be nice to others."
I know Dilla, you got him wrong. His tours are very good. Do you want to try one? I'll treat.
Well Steve , I guess thats one point of view. I'd love to hear Mr. Thomas' take on the things you think
ReplyDeleteWow. Just...wow. Blacktivity? Seriously?
ReplyDeleteIs that a new fash word in 2025?
And fash does not mean fashionable.
Italians did marry the Irish. And the Germans.
And the Hispanics. And even the Jews.
But how many of them married people of color?
Do you known what mulignan means? Or tizzone?
Bet you do. Wonder if any of your neighbors read EGD?
Better hope they don't.