Redlined

by Linda Gartz

  Mom had seamlessly incorporated Dad’s care into her other duties. She doled out his medication, arranged for doctor and physical therapist home visits, monitored his blood pressure and recorded it on a graph, which Dad could understand because it was an image (right brain), not words (left brain). Showing him the chart, Mom would clap him gently on the back when he had improved numbers, saying, “Look, Fred! Good job with your blood pressure!” He smiled, making appropriate sounds of approval, and she gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

  I’m not sure Mom even recognized her change from whirling fury to doting caregiver, but it turned my mind to ponder the transformation. With Dad’s freewheeling ways behind him, she was no longer sidelined by frustration and bitter grievances. She could make all the financial and household decisions without Dad stubbornly thwarting her plans. The man with whom she’d fallen so wildly in love more than four decades earlier was beside her again.

  As with my grandmother’s death eight years earlier, when my heart broke at Grandpa Gartz’s sobbing grief, I was still learning about marriage’s mysterious bargain—how two people, so seemingly at odds with one another, could reunite in the most unexpected circumstances. The embers of my parents’ once-great love, long buried under a landslide of careless deeds and words, had reignited, not as the flame of early passion, but as the contented glow of devotion.

  My parents’ letters and diaries had come to me like messages in a bottle, bobbing across a sea of time, their words transporting me on a telepathic journey—into their minds and hearts. Despite their missteps, I learned how so much of what they did turned out right. Their example of perseverance, work ethic, commitment, responsibility, selbstständigkeit, and devotion to duty was passed on to their children, allowing us to thrive in a very different world. Their emphasis on education encouraged all three of us to earn graduate degrees and inspired us to love learning. Their good hearts overcame previous prejudices as they continued their work and committed their full devotion to the tenants in our riot-torn neighborhood, despite the dangers to themselves.

  On weekends, I often visited as Mom took Dad through his morning routine, chattering away, finishing by patting and smoothing into place a few errant strands of his hair with her hand. “Do you want to see how nice you look?” she asked, as she reached for a nearby mirror to hold in front of his face.

  Dad mugged at his reflection. “Ooh, aah,” he intoned, lifting his chin, closing his eyes, and simultaneously raising his eyebrows, smiling in mock self-pride. We all cracked up. So much of Dad’s humor still shone through his expressive face and tone.

  Dad didn’t cry anymore, except over a sentimental movie or a tragic event, like when the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up in 1986. He often took Mom’s hand, and, closing his eyes, held it for a long time against his cheek. He turned it over and gave the back a tender kiss. She stroked his cheek and his hair, then kissed the top of his head and bent over to kiss his lips. She put an arm around his shoulder. He lifted his face to hers, and they smiled into each other’s eyes.

  Mom hugs Dad, 1987.

  NOTES

  1. “The Cost of Segregation,” Metropolitan Planning Council, https://www.metroplanning.org/costofsegregation/default.aspx.

  2. Amanda I. Seligman, Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 23.

  3. “Janitor for Forty Years Retires,” Garfieldian, Aug. 4, 1954. Note: $20,000 in 1929 had the same buying power as $282,376.61 in 2017. Annual inflation over this period was about 3.05 percent. http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=20000&year=1929

  4. $.45 in 1932 was the equivalent of about $7.44 in 2017. http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=1&-year=1932

  5. To see an example of the code my father used, go to http://www.wikihow.com/Create-Secret-Codes-and-Ciphers, #5.

  6. Albert Q. Maisel, “Bedlam 1946,” Life, May 6, 1946.

  7. Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 376.

  8. 1960 Fact Book; 1980 Fact Book; Department of Development and Planning, City of Chicago, Chicago Statistical Abstract, Part I: 1970 Census, Community Area Summary Tables (July 1973) (hereafter Chicago Statistical Abstract). Table created from data is in Amanda I. Seligman, Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 31.

  9. Stephen Grant Meyer, As Long As They Don’t Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 120.

  10. Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 376.

  11. Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1987), 196-218: “[B]lack neighborhoods were invariably rated as fourth grade… . ” Note: Redlining is a much more complicated subject than can be entertained in a bio-memoir such as this. The bottom line, as expressed in several studies, is that when blacks moved into a community, the area was redlined, making it difficult—if not impossible—for whites or blacks to obtain mortgages in the redlined area. That in turn created economic incentives for whites to keep blacks out.

  12. Beryl Satter, Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010), 42.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Stephen Grant Meyer, As Long As They Don’t Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 8.

  15. Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983, 1998), Table 1: “The Black Population of Chicago, 1890–1960” (U.S. Census Reports), 17.

  16. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963, http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/undecided/630416-019.pdf.

  17. Amanda I. Seligman, Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 170.

  18. Ibid., 35. Per the U.S. Census Bureau, Chicago had 320,372 more blacks in 1960 than in 1950.

  19. Ibid., 39.

  20. Ibid., 39–40.

  21. Ibid., 129.

  22. Amanda I. Seligman, Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), Table 5: “U.S. Census, 1960,” 35.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Michael T. Maly and Heather M. Dalmage, Vanishing Eden: White Construction of Memory, Meaning, and Identity in a Racially Changing City (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2016), 14-15.

  25. Claude Sitton, “Alabama Admits Negro Students; Wallace Bows to Federal Force,” in Reporting Civil Rights, Part One: American Journalism 1941–1963 (London: Penguin, 2003), 827. First published in the New York Times, June 12, 1963.

  26. “This Day in History: JFK Faces Down Defiant Governor,” History, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jfk-faces-down-defiant-governor.

  27. Claude Sitton, “N.A.A.C.P. Leader Slain in Jackson; Protests Mount,” in Reporting Civil Rights, Part One: American Journalism 1941–1963 (London: Penguin, 2003), 835. First published in the New York Times, June 13, 1963.

  28. “Byron De La Beckwith,” Biography, http://www.biography.com/people/byron-de-la-beckwith-21442573#conviction-and-death.

  29. “Homeowner,” letter to the editor, Garfieldian, May 18, 1966. Quoted in Amanda I. Seligman, Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 2.

  30. Amanda I. Seligman, Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), Table 3: “North Lawndale Population,” 34.

  31. “Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America,” Digital Scholarship Lab (Uni
versity of Richmond), https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=4/36.71/-96.93&opacity=0.8.

  32. Beryl Satter, Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010), 96.

  33. Ibid., 97.

  34. Michael T. Maly and Heather M. Dalmage, Vanishing Eden: White Construction of Memory, Meaning, and Identity in a Racially Changing City (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2016), 14.

  35. Laura Shin, “The Racial Wealth Gap: Why a Typical White Household Has 16 Times the Wealth of a Black One,” Forbes, March 26, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2015/03/26/the-racial-wealth-gap-why-a-typical-white-household-has-16-times-the-wealth-of-a-black-one/. Note: As Shin explains, “The typical black household now has just 6% of the wealth of the typical white household; the typical Latino household has just 8%, according to a recent study called “The Racial Wealth Gap: Why Policy Matters,” by Demos, a public policy organization… . The racial wealth gap means families of color may not be able to give young members of their households gifts to invest in their future, similar to what their white friends are likely to receive.”

  36. Derek Gee and Ralph Lopez, Laugh Your Troubles Away: The Complete History of Riverview Park, Chicago, Illinois (Chicago: Sharpshooters Productions, 2000), 145.

  37. Stephen Grant Meyer, As Long As They Don’t Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 117–18.

  38. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream” (speech, Washington, DC, August 28, 1963), American Rhetoric, http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm.

  39. The black population in Los Angeles increased from about 63,700 in 1940 to about 350,000 in 1965. See “The Great Migration: Creating a New Black Identity in Los Angeles,” KCET, https://www.kcet.org/history-society/the-great-migration-creating-a-new-black-identity-in-los-angeles.

  40. Sheila Radford-Hill, phone conversation with author, April 22, 2015.

  41. “In Chicago, Scores Hurt in Riot,” Chicago Daily News, August 14, 1965.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Burleigh Hines, “Hysterical Hate on the West Side,” Chicago Daily News, August 14, 1965.

  44. Edmond J. Rooney, “A Night of Shame on Pulaski Road,” Chicago Daily News, August 14, 1965.

  45. Notes Amanda I. Seligman, “Everyone remembers this wrongly because Mike Royko [a Chicago Daily News newspaper columnist in 1968] narrated it falsely. The shoot-to-kill order was not made public until about a week after the riots. I looked through the microfilm and discovered the discrepancy.” Amanda Seligman, electronic communication with author, December 27, 2016.

  46. Quotes from Barbara Lilly are from a phone conversation with the author, January 24, 2006.

  47. “West Madison Street, 1968,” Encyclopedia of Chicago, http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/6354.html.

  48. Charla Wilson, Archivist for the Black Experience, Northwestern University Libraries, Northwestern University, Evanston, Il. Email September 21, 2017. “According to the ‘Northwestern University Responses to the Black Student Petition, April 22, 1968,’ 5 black students entered in 1965; 54 entered in 1966; and approximately 100 applicants in 1968.” Northwestern University Responses to the Black Student Petition, April 22, 1968, Box 1, folder 3, Records of the 1968 Black Student Sit-In, Series 31/6/155, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston Il.

  49. Black Student Statement and Petition to Northwestern University Administrations, April 22, 1968, Box 1, folder 3, Records of the 1968 Black Student Sit-In, Series 31/6/155, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Il.

  50. Northwestern University Responses to the Black Student Petition, April 22, 1968, Box 1, folder 3, Records of the 1968 Black Student Sit-In, Series 31/6/155, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston Il.

  Policy Statement, Box 1, folder 3, Records of the 1968 Black Student Sit-In, Series 31/6/155, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Il.

  51. Barbara Lilly, phone conversation with author, January 24, 2006.

  52. Frank Kusch, Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), p 53.

  53. “Marriages and Divorces, 1900–2012,” Infoplease, https://www.infoplease.com/us/marital-status/marriages-and-divorces-1900a2012. Note: Within five years (1975), the divorce rate increased to almost 50 percent.

  54. “Son of Sharecropper: Dope Dealer Reaps Riches,” Chicago Tribune, February 25, 1974.

  Photo Credits

  “Fig. 1: Chicago community areas,” “Fig. 2: West Side community areas,” “Figs. 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d: Racial composition of the West Side 1940–1970,” and “Fig. 4: West Side schools” produced by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Cartography & GIS Center. © The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Reprinted by permission.

  “A Negro Family Just Arrived in Chicago from the Rural South” is reprinted from Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922), facing p. 92.

  ACT leaflet is reprinted from Chicago Daily News, “In Chicago, Scores Hurt in Riot,” August 14, 1965, p. 4. Best attempts were made to find the creator of this leaflet.

  “Outside NU Bursar’s office, May 3,1968, with white sympathizers.” Photo by James Sweet. Reprinted from the James S. Sweet Collection, Northwestern University Archives.

  “Dunk tank at Riverview Amusement Park, date unknown” is reprinted from Living History of Illinois and Chicago, “Removal of the ‘African Dip’ dunk tank game from Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois,” livinghistoryofillinois.com.

  “Dunk Tank, Riverview Park, circa 1921” is supplied courtesy of Sharpshooters Productions, Inc., printed from the original negative for use in Laugh Your Troubles Away: The Complete History of Riverview Park by Derek Gee and Ralph Lopez (Chicago: Sharpshooters Productions, Inc. 2000).

  “West Side destruction after riots, April 1968.” Photograph by Jo Freeman, www.jofreeman.com. Reprinted by permission.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you to my parents and grandparents for the precious gift of their lives and thoughts, recorded in letters, diaries, photos, slides, films, audio tape, notes—so much more than can be listed here. Incredibly, they lovingly saved, labeled, and organized these thousands of family-history treasures, creating an archival collection that spans the twentieth century. The clarity and honesty of their writing put me into their hearts and minds and made visceral for me their emotions, traumas, sorrows, and happiness–just as they experienced them–in real time.

  Thank you, thank you to my husband, Bill. For fifteen years, he’s listened patiently to my dismay or thrill over discoveries in the archives. He’s cooked dinner for years and has tolerated twenty-five boxes of family history stored in our garage and spilling over into an entire room of our house. I was a mere sixteen when we met, and I’ve never doubted his total love and devotion to me. I’m one lucky gal.

  Thank you to the many editors without whom Redlined would never have been published; to Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, family-history maven, author, and genealogist, who first helped me to see a bigger picture and delve into deeper meaning; to Anjali Sachdeva, my mentor at Creative Nonfiction, who read my 135,000-word tome and, with wise counsel and a firm grasp of story, led me to cut the chaff and uncover the kernel of my story and fine-tune the writing. I also owe gratitude to authors, writing instructors, and my neighbors, Sharon and Steve Fiffer, whose valuable advice helped move my story forward. Thanks to my She Writes Press editor, Annie Tucker, who took my almost-final manuscript to the next level.

  Thanks to my beta readers. A special shout-out to Adrienne Lieberman, a reader extraordinaire, who placed scores of sticky notes throughout an earlier manuscript draft, noting everything from word choice and grammar tweaks to suggested cuts. She then graciously reviewed yet another draft.

  Thank you
to Susan Beck, who read an early manuscript and shared not only her takeaway from the story but also brought her keen sense of persuasive language to bear on my core message, title, and website. Another thank you to Susan and to dedicated teacher, Vikki Proctor, for working together with me to create questions for book groups and book clubs. We hope they enrich all readers’ experiences.

  Mary Nelson, founder and first president of Bethel New Life, which grew out of the Gartz family’s church in West Garfield Park, was generous with her memories of our community, where she has served the neighborhood since 1965. My thanks also for putting me in touch with many longtime West Side residents, who shared their experiences with me for the book.

  Dr. Josh Akin spontaneously responded to my description of the book with, “Redlined! That would be a great title.” Yes, it is. Thank you!

  The most consistent supporters and readers of my manuscript as it stumbled along for more than ten years were the members of my writing critique group, The Writers of Glen-coe, Il. Their combined talent is immense. A special mention to those moderators at The Writers who so improved my craft and whose relentless enthusiasm and encouragement kept me going. A thousand thanks to Fred Shafer for his years of detailed notes, and to Sharon Solwitz and Anne Calcagno for their wise insight.

  A big thank-you to the extraordinary and indefatigable Brooke Warner, publisher and founder of She Writes Press, for recognizing my book as both an important personal as well as historical story that needed to be told. I appreciate the opportunity to be published with a dynamic press and work with team members at the highest level of professionalism.

  I’m forever indebted to Amanda I. Seligman, chair of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee, for her book Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side. Who could have dreamed that an urban historian would write her PhD thesis on my former neighborhood? She generously agreed to read my manuscript for accuracy and has continued to offer a historian’s insights throughout the process of publication.