Shelby Hawkins | April 17, 2024, 7:45 pm
Chicago’s sordid history of being one of the most segregated cities in the United States is detailed in a new four-part documentary series, “Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation.”
The show uses firsthand accounts, archival footage and animation to better explain complex practices like redlining and blockbusting, and how Black families were systemically barred from homeownership.
Homeownership was and still is a big driver for the racial wealth gap.
The series’ name is, fittingly, taken from writer Richard Wright’s 1950 Ebony magazine essay “The Shame of Chicago,” in which he calls out the Windy City for not being the safe haven for Black Americans it was advertised as.
Series creator and producer Bruce Orenstein said he made the series as a “gift for Chicago” to educate people on how the city became so divided.
“It’s an extension of my life’s work,” said Orenstein, who’s a native Chicagoan.
The filmmaker started working as a community organizer in his late 20s — more than 40 years ago. That work took him across the city’s South and West sides, where he became “absorbed by the challenges faced by Black people.”
Similarly, Chris L. Jenkins, producer and the second episode’s co-writer, has spent more than two decades covering topics related to social justice and identity. He said this project felt like the perfect fit for him.
“One of the most incredible things about this story is the resistance,” Jenkins said.
The legacies of oppressive tactics that “Shame of Chicago” outlines continue to live on today.
Jewell Walton is the vice president of public partnerships at Evergreen Real Estate Group. She previously worked at the Chicago Housing Authority, where for nearly a decade she ran the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, which invests in and preserves public housing.
Walton drew a connection between Black Chicagoans lacking generational wealth to the denial of home ownership in early eras.
“This has been a continuation of a number of discriminatory practices that we know from history that in many cases disproportionately affects Black Americans,” Walton said.
“Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation” premieres its first episode, “The Color Tax,” at 9 p.m. Thursday on WTTW.