"The three girls formed an indelible bond: roaming their community in search of hidden treasures for their 'Thing Finder box,' and hiding under the dining room table, eavesdropping as three generations of relatives gossiped and played the numbers. The girls spent countless afternoons together, ice skating in the nearby Lake Meadows apartment complex, swimming in the pool at the Ida B. Wells housing project, and daydreaming of their futures: Dawn a writer, Debra a doctor, Kim a teacher. Then they came to a precipice, a fraught rite of passage for all girls when the dangers and the harsh realities of the world burst the innocent bubble of childhood, when the choices they made could--and would--have devastating consequences. There was a razor thin margin of error--especially for brown girls"

A dazzling and surprising visual visit to Bronzeville, Chicago's vibrant African-American community, during the segregated 1940s and 1950s.

With the migration of African American sharecroppers to northern cities in the first half of the 20th century, the African American population of Milwaukee grew from fewer than 1,000 in 1900 to nearly 22,000 by 1950. Most settled around a 12-block area along Walnut Street that came to be known as Milwaukee's Bronzeville, a thriving residential, business, and entertainment community. Barbershops, restaurants, drugstores, and funeral homes were started with a little money saved from overtime pay at factory jobs or extra domestic work taken on by the women. Exotic nightclubs, taverns, and restaurants attracted a racially mixed clientele, and daytime social clubs sponsored "matinees" that were dress-up events featuring local bands catering to neighborhood residents. Bronzeville is remembered by African American elders as a good place to grow up--times were hard, but the community was tight.

Newly annotated with everything from slang to Chicagoans--famous and obscure--this book is, as Studs Terkel says, "the best book about Chicago".

A dynamic reappraisal of a neglected period in African American cultural history from the early 1930s to the cold war, and the first comprehensive critical study of the creative awakenting that occurred on Chicago's South Side -- from cover.

Sexuality is much more than sex; it is the embodiment of how we perceive our sexual selves and encompasses past experiences, attitudes, values, as well as the meanings that we have constructed throughout our lives about our sexual behavior. It is integral to healthy human functioning, and it can be severely affected whenever a person becomes the victim of illness or injury. This book describes how illness and injury impact sexual functioning. From cancer to diabetes, hysterectomy to injury, from mental illness to combat injury, the author covers a wide variety of illness and disease that can directly impact sexuality. Based on cutting edge research, current practice in this area by leading sex therapists and experts, the author provides readers with a guide to how illness and disease can affect sexual functioning and how victims can handle the various issues involved. Case studies, quotes from patients, and tips and solutions for problems encountered in all aspects of sexual functioning are included throughout. Until now, a comprehensive overview of the challenges to sexuality from illness and injury was not available. This book explains the reasons why illness and injury affect sexuality. This information alone will help many people who are experiencing problems in their sex lives as a result of the illness itself or the treatments for it. It also presents suggestions for how people can help themselves to solve their problems. Helpful resources are included at the end of each chapter for further information and help. Each chapter contains stories of people who have experienced sexual problems as a result of illness or injury and many readers will see themselves in these examples. Just knowing that other people have the same sorts of problems may be a comfort. In addition, the information and explanations in the book can be helpful in starting a conversation with health care providers about problems in sexual functioning. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how they can cultivate sexuality during and after battling illness and injury.

Bronzeville’s Bootstraps describes the growth of African American businesses in the mid-twentieth century and how successful businesspersons overcame serious obstacles and simultaneously lit lanterns of hope for future generations. This unusual, provocative novel details how Chicago’s black private sector made Bronzeville the most prosperous community in the nation during the turbulent fifties, sixties, and seventies. The protagonist, Jerome Gerard, leaves his Beaumont, Texas, home with his family, seeking employment as a registered pharmacist. After failing in several cities, Jerome stops at the Pershing Hotel to relax for the weekend. The manager, Lester “Turkey” Stevens, introduces Gail and Jerome to Bronzeville’s nightlife. The next day, Lester takes Jerome to Felix and Bea’s restaurant to meet the “swells.” Because of their help-another-brother philosophy, the swells find Jerome a job and a home overnight. After being blatantly lied to by his boss, Jerome schemes to get the cash to buy his first drugstore. He learns what motivates Caucasians and uses their stimuli against them to build a chain. But it wasn’t easy. Jerome encountered racist, economic, and illegal obstacles at every turn.

Chicago, 1928. In the stifling summer heat, three disturbing events take place: A clique of city leaders is poisoned in a fancy hotel; a white gangster is found mutilated in an alleyway in the Blackbelt; and a famous heiress vanishes without a trace. Pinkerton detectives Michael Talbot and Ida Davis are hired to find the missing heiress by the girl’s troubled mother. But it soon proves harder than expected to find a face that is known across the city, and Ida must elicit the help of her friend, Louis Armstrong. While the police take little interest in the Blackbelt murder, Jacob Russo—crime scene photographer—can’t get the dead man’s image out of his head, leading him to embark on his own investigation. And Dante Sanfelippo—rum-runner and fixer—is back in Chicago on the orders of Al Capone, who suspects there’s a traitor in the ranks and wants Dante to investigate. But Dante is struggling with his own problems, as he is forced to return to the city he thought he’d never see again . . .

Two of the most celebrated black neighborhoods in the United States—Harlem in New York City and Bronzeville in Chicago—were once plagued by crime, drugs, and abject poverty. But now both have transformed into increasingly trendy and desirable neighborhoods with old buildings being rehabbed, new luxury condos being built, and banks opening branches in areas that were once redlined. In The New Urban Renewal, Derek S. Hyra offers an illuminating exploration of the complicated web of factors—local, national, and global—driving the remarkable revitalization of these two iconic black communities. How did these formerly notorious ghettos become dotted with expensive restaurants, health spas, and chic boutiques? And, given that urban renewal in the past often meant displacing African Americans, how have both neighborhoods remained black enclaves? Hyra combines his personal experiences as a resident of both communities with deft historical analysis to investigate who has won and who has lost in the new urban renewal. He discovers that today’s redevelopment affects African Americans differentially: the middle class benefits while lower-income residents are priced out. Federal policies affecting this process also come under scrutiny, and Hyra breaks new ground with his penetrating investigation into the ways that economic globalization interacts with local political forces to massively reshape metropolitan areas. As public housing is torn down and money floods back into cities across the United States, countless neighborhoods are being monumentally altered. The New Urban Renewal is a compelling study of the shifting dynamics of class and race at work in the contemporary urban landscape.

Chicago Sketches is a collection of seventy-two essays on Chicago history. The essays are arranged according to subject and, within each category, further divided into chronological order. There are sections devoted to early Chicago, radicals and reformers, literary institutions, neighborhood life, law and disorder, spirituality, politics, disasters and events, the art, visitors, and sports and recreation. The book contains a dozen maps and fifty-one black-and-white photographs. The appendix provides a chronology of major events in Chicago history and a listing of Chicago mayors and historic landmarks and districts. An annotated bibliography offers suggestions for further reading.