UCSC Picks: Books, Articles, Podcasts and More
This list is designed to give you an overview of different topics related to the city of Chicago and the amazing work being done here to create a more just world. It is an imperfect overview, and it is important to remember that the views and perspectives presented do not necessarily reflect those of The University of Chicago at large, The University Community Service Center, or its staff.
Enjoy!
Chicago and the South Side
Books
Sacred Ground by Timuel Black
The South Side by Natalie Moore
The City in a Garden by John Mark Hansen
The University of Chicago, A History by John Boyer
The New Chicago School of Philosophy: Some Lessons from the University of Chicago Civic Knowledge Project by Bart Schultz
Articles
Due South
Where Are You Going Woodlawn?
The Fight to Remain
How to Love a City That Doesn't Love You Back
TV
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, PBS
Podcasts
"South Side Stories," NPR
Arts and Activism
Readings
A New Poem for Chicago
Videos
How to revive a neighborhood with: imagination, beauty, and art
Chicago Students Protest New $95-Million Police Academy
Economic Justice
Readings
Obama says he believes in community organizing. He should listen to Chicago's South Side. by Eve L. Ewing
Education
Readings
Vacancies to Fill: Considering Desire in the Past and Future of Chicago's Vacant Schools by Eve L. Ewing
School Segregation Didn't Go Away, It Evolved
The Rise of Law Enforcement on College Campuses by Melissa D. Anderson
Illinois School Funding Inequity: Worse than the Worst
Buy-in to Chicago's Neighborhood Grammar Schools
Less than 25% of Chicago Kids Go to Neighborhood High Schools
Videos
Why Chicago's Public Schools are Broken
How America's Schools Keep Kids in Poverty
Environmental Justice
Readings
Climate Activists: Here’s Why Your Work Depends on Ending Police Violence
Flint’s Children Suffer in Class After Years of Drinking the Lead-Poisoned Water
Videos
A Brief History of Environmental Justice
What is Environmental Racism?
Environmental Justice: Peggy Shepard at TEDxHarlem
Housing
Readings
We Shall Not Be Moved: A Hunger Strike, Housing and Education in Chicago by Eve L. Ewing
Vacancies to Fill: Considering Desire in the Past and Future of Chicago's Vacant Schools by Eve L. Ewing
Cost of Segregation
The Case for Reparations
Rahm Emanuel's Next Scandal? Chicago's Public Housing by Eve L. Ewing
The Rise of Law Enforcement on College Campuses by Melissa D. Anderson
School Segregation Didn't Go Away, It Evolved
Videos/Podcasts/Visuals
Ethnic Neighborhoods Define Chicago
Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago’s Public Housing from Ronit Bezalel on Vimeo (check out the other films and links on this website!)
CPS is building a $70 million school as residents ask: for whom?
Mapping Segregation
Our home on Native-land.ca: website lets users explore Indigenous ancestral territories
Immigration
Readings
Chicago's History as a Sanctuary City by Kori Rumore
LGBTQ Rights
Readings
Why I'm Fighting to Take the "Boys" Out of Boystown
The LGBTQ Civil Rights Fight Is Far From Over
Transgender Chicagoans say police encounters can be dehumanizing. A new report says CPD is failing them.
Here’s what a good LGBTQ ally looks like
Why Police Often Single Out Trans People for Violence
Police/Prison Abolition
Readings
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates
How Chicago Became the First City to Make Reparations to Victims of Police Violence
What Abolitionists Do
The Fight Over Chicago’s Largest Private Police Force
Invisible Institute's youth / police project
A CPD Reading List by Emily Lipstein and Sam Stecklow
Should Communities Have a Say in How Residents are Punished for Crime? by Yana Kuchinoff
Chicago’s Gang Database Is Full of Errors — And Records We Have Prove It
A Psychologist as Warden? Jail and Mental Illness Intersect in Chicago
Videos/Podcasts
AirGo · Ep 185 - Trina Reynolds-Tyler (podcast by Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger)
Gun Violence Is Public Health Crisis in Chicago
I Grow Chicago
We Need to Talk About An Injustice
Urban Renewal
Click here for an e-folder of readings about Urban Renewal and its history on the South Side, particularly Hyde Park and Woodlawn. Readings are sourced from from the following books:
Arthur Brazier’s Black Self-Determination: The Story of the Woodlawn Organization (1969)
Arnold Hirsch’s Making the Second Ghetto: Race and housing in Chicago, 1940-1960 (1983)
Danielle Allen’s Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education (2004)
Leon Despres’s Challenging the Daley Machine: A Chicago Alderman’s Memoir (2005)
John Boyer’s The University of Chicago: A History (2015)
Chicago Map Quizzes
Learn the Chicago neighborhoods!
77 neighborhoods organized by area
77 neighborhoods (difficult)
Click that hood quiz