VOLUME 18 THECHICAGO NUMBER 8 E SEPTEMBER 1989 SICK AND POOR IN CHICAGO DAILY GRIND OF KIDNEY FAILURE WEARS DOWN Low-INCOME FAMILY

FOR MANY FAMIUES IN POVERTY, ILLNESS HAS BECOME A CONSTANT, UNWANTED COMPANION.

By Laurie Abraham

OBERT BANES WAS THINKING ABOUT FRYING ange in one corner of the room; otherwise, it was early­ some bacon for breakfast when the driver who morning gray. Robert's ll-year-old daughter, Latrice, slept takes him to kidney dialysis sounded his horn nearby, her long, brown legs stretching the length of the Rfrom the street. This was unusual because it was couch that does double duty as her bed. In the back of the just a little after 5:30 a.m., and Robert is scheduled for a 6 apartment, his 3-year-old son and infant daughter slept in o'clock pick-up, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Robert has the bedroom they share with him and his Wife, Jacqueline, known drivers to be late, sometimes by hours; he has who was already up, washing at the bathroom sink. known drivers not to show; he has never known them to Jacqueline's 69-year-old grandmother, Cora Jackson, had not be early. yet called for her breakfast or moming drink of water. She So in no particular hurry, he sat down in the living lay still in bed, where she has spent most of her time since room to pull on his leather high tops. A lamp glowed or- her leg was amputated this spring. continued on page 3

AIDS Groups Urge Blacks Losing State Road Contracts Multi-Cultural 2Cooperation 6 Women Gain at Expense of Minorities PAGE TWO

New AIDS Fighters Link Efforts to 'Break Down Walls'

WASHINGTON-Upon his release from a cording to the U.S. Bureau of Justice. Nation­ hour exchange · about the interconnected Texas prison, Matten Baaith took a Muslim ally, nearly 14 million people were arrested. struggles of society's minority populations. name which means, "Wise man of learning, Of the 627,600 men and women incarcerat­ "AIDS isn't just a disease. It touches on ev­ resurrector of the dead." ed in state and federal prisons last year, 40 erything-racism, sexism, poverty, homopho­ Matten Baaith is an appropriate name for percent were black. (Hispanics are classified bia, a national health care policy and clas­ this tall, deep-voiced 44-year-old Houston as either whites or blacks, but are estimated sisrn," said protester Gail Harris, who is man who runs Over The Hill, Inc., a 10-year­ to be 11 percent of state and federal inmates.) black, of the Center for Women's Policy old organization for ex-offenders and inmates How criminals got to prison is further ev­ Studies in Washington, D.C. "AIDS has given in Harris County and the Texas prisons. idence of the connection between drugs and us an opportunity to come together, to make It may seem odd that Baaith, a fo~mer AIDS. A National Institute of Justice study coalitions with diverse people to solve di­ drug dealer and ex-con, has become a leading showed that two out of every three parolees verse problems." voice for minorities and the poor in the bat­ tested positive for drugs last year and that Rebecca Cole, an Irish-American lesbian tle to prevent the spread of AIDS. 50 percent of federal and state inmates had from New York City, also urged conference But Baaith is a new type of AIDS fighter, been convicted of drug-related crimes. participants to unite their struggles. one who emerged last month from the na­ "Every time you hear me say drugs I'm "You can't say what's more atrocious-that tion's largest annual gathering of minority talking about AIDS and every time you hear someone is murdered for his color on the AIDS service providers. Faced with "multiple me say AIDS I'm talking about drugs," said subway, someone is left to die from a epidemics," Baaith and others, are forging Baaith. "Nine million people in county jails botched abortion or someone is fag-bashed multi-cultural relationships to combat inter­ and 14 million arrests ... if you educate them on the street,"" Cole said. "We've got to talk related problems such as AIDS, drugs, crime, you wouldn't have to do any outreach." to each other and it's important for me to poverty and lack of health care. Baaith's approach of linking preventive ed­ stand before you and recognize my own in­ "You can't talk about drugs without talk­ ucation, AIDS, drugs and the criminal justice ternalized racism." ing about AIDS_ You can't talk about AIDS system is just one example of groups form­ Barbara Ford of Newark, N.J. and a mem­ without talking about drugs" is a statement ing a multi-dimensional approach to some of ber of the National AIDS Black Caucus, in­ he repeated like a mantra during a work­ the most severe problems facing minorities fused the conference with a sense of multi­ shop at the third national conference on in the United States. cultural urgency seldom seen before the ad­ HIV Infection and AIDS Among Racial and During the third day of the conference, vent of AIDS. Ethnic Populations. about 25 participants interrupted a session "We are here to network, kick butt, raise "What had been considered 'the rich on "Addiction and AIDS" to protest the con­ hell and pull down whatever we need to man's drug'-cocaine-has become the coin of ference's emphasis on prevention. They pull down," Ford told the assembly. "This is common currency on the streets of the urged public health officials to provide not 'us' and 'them.' This is a global commu­ inner city," said Baaith. "But the introduc­ news on medical treatments and include nity_ What you do affects me, be you tion of AIDS into the equation made an al­ more youths, women and gay minorities in straight, gay, purple on one side and polka most unbearable situation even worse." experimental drug tests. dot on the other. It's all the same. Break Baaith, though, is convinced that AIDS ed­ The small group rallied the morning down your walls." ucation in criminal justice systems can crowd of 1,000 and set off an emotional two- -jennifer Robles reach many blacks and Hispanics and other minorities at risk for AIDS. But, nationwide, few programs target ex-offenders, especially Rate of Black AIDS Cases Outnumbers All Populations at the local level. That his small Houston group is one of the most effective indicates The statistics on AIDS and minonues substan tJate the concern of the 3,000 partido the lack of national planning to stem the pants Who gathered in the nation's cap tal a week after the oftll:iaJ recordmg of the na­ spread of AIDS among minorities, Baaith tion's 100,OOOth case of AIDS: said. • Blacks, Hispanics ASians and American India ns represent 21 percent of the nation's "Coming from the same enVironment, I population but make up 41 petceQt of all AIDS cases. can talk to ex·cons about how you can get • Between 1981 and 1988, blacks and Hispamcs had the highest ann ual rates of AIDS AIDS from sex, including homosexual sex, per 100,000 popula(lon . The rates were: blacks, 349; HispaniCS, 28.9; whites, 9.6; and drugs," Baaith told The Chicago Re­ ASia;ns and PacifIC Islanders, 5.4; and American Indians and Alasl{an Na ti~ 22. porter. " ~ut I've had to reach out to gay • In on-going screen ing for HN-lnfectlon of tbe nation' s rnHitary retrults, blacks were groups, women's groups, the black church mfected 5.6 times more than whites and Hj~panic s were mfected 3.1 times more than and the white penal justice system to do it. whites. We can't isolate anymore and hope to solve • In 1¢"88, the annual rate Of AIDS cases associated WIth Intrav.enous .drug use was 11.5 these problems." times higher among blacks and 8.8 t.lmes higher among Hispanics than among whites. Nearly 9 million people nationwide spent • Every two h o u r~ a blacl< person dies from AIDS. time in city and county jails last year, ac-

2 CHICAGO REPORTER · SEPTEMBER 1989 SIC K AND P 0 0 R IN CHICAGO

REPORTER SERIES TO DOCUMENT THE HUMAN COST OF ILLNESS n recent years, health care for the poor often has been mea­ of the sick and poor. Robert's kidneys no longer function and he is sured in dollars-so much for a day in the hospital, for medicine, waiting for a transplant. His wife, Jackie, cares for her invalid grand­ for diagnosis. The human cost of being sick and poor is far hard­ mother and three children in a small West Side apartment. Her fa­ I er to count. But the price can be painfully high for those whose ther is recuperating from a stroke. While no one can fully control health depends on government programs and funds. To go behind the his or her medical destinies, the Banes family has an even smaller statistics, reporter Laurie Abraham is spending the rest of the year say than most in the decisions that govern their lives. with one Chicago family to see what it means to be sick and poor Over the next few months, The Chicago Reporter will tell the in the city. story of how they get by. Their names have been changed; the de­ Robert Banes and his relatives suffer from many of the problems tails of their lives have not.

KIDNEY FAIWRE costs not covered by Medicare, 14 patients continued from page I are eligible for Medicaid, the state and feder­ Robert finished tying his shoes. The arm­ al health insurance program for the poor. Six chair he sat in was covered by an olive-col­ are covered by private health insurance. And ored throw Jackie uses to hide its thinning two qualify for an Illinois Department of upholstery. Across the room was a brown Public Health program that picks up dialysis vinyl recliner that the Banes push in front patients who fall between the cracks, those of the door at night for extra security. not poor enough for Medicaid but too poor Eyes half shut, Robert descended the stairs to afford private insurance. that run from his second-floor apartment to That kidney dialysis patients are blacker a small front porch_ "Hey Banes, 1 knew I'd and poorer than the city as a whole should get you today," called the driver, who has the corner. Tacked to a bulletin board called be no surprise. Nationwide, heart attacks, transported Robert before. Each weekday, the "Social Worker's Corner" was the puz­ strokes, cancer, diabetes, infant mortality, private companies that contract with the zling message: "You can do little with faith, and now AIDS, kill proportionately more Chicago Transit Authority take 2,500 dis­ but you can do nothing without it." blacks than anyone else. For the most part, abled Cook County residents like Robert to Over occ~ional talk of the Bulls and high public health experts agree, poverty-not medical appointments and wherever else blood-pressure pills, the Cubs and restrictive race-accounts for the high rate of sickness they need to go. It takes about 20 minutes diets, Neomedica's clerk called patients back and death among blacks. to drive Robert from his West Side neighbor­ for dialYSiS, a couple at a time. Robert was hood, where storefront churches and vacant, one of the last patients left when he was • • • weed-choked lots alternate with brick two­ summoned at 7:30 a.m. That is his regular Robert Banes was born to a teen-age flats, to the Neomedica Dialysis Center on dialysis time, but Robert gets to the clinic a mother 35 years ago in the Illinois Research Superior Street, near Michigan Avenue. little after 6 a.m. because he has found that and Educational Hospital, part of the Univer­ Robert wears a dialysis uniform of sorts: a the earlier his pick-up, the more likely the sity of Illinois medical complex. He still goes navy and white nylon sweatsuit and a red driver is to be on time. When patients are to the rambling building for care, as an out­ Bulls cap. His 137 pounds are stretched tight­ late, they may wait hours to be dialyzed. patient in the transplant program. iy across a 5' 11" frame. His arms are still Upon hearing his name, Robert pitched As a boy, Robert moved between the West sculpted from his basketball-playing days, his paper and walked to his recliner in the Side apartments of his mother and grand­ but the muscles look as if they have been far corner of the adjoining room. He passed mother. Fearing he would get tangled up sanded down. All that's left are a few bulges a score of patients attatched to blinking with a gang, they sent him to Panola, Alaba­ covered by a thin layer of skin. He has lost and beeping machines by thin plastic tubes ma, when he was 17 to live with his stepfa­ 20 pounds since he went on dialysis in Jan­ made red by steady streams of blood. With­ ther's parents. Panola was so small, Robert uary, when his body rejected a transplanted out the filters to cleanse their blood, Robert said, that "by the time you raise your hand kidney, and the clinic nutritionist plans to and the other patients would die within a to wave to somebody, you're out of town." put him on a supplemental diet. On the few days or weeks. Their kidneys have His next stop was a Tennessee communi­ warmest days Robert gets cold, and when he stopped removing toxic wastes. ty college where he studied and play basket­ sees a woman walk down the street in Fourteen of the patients hooked to dialy­ ball, until he dropped out and came back to shorts and a sleeveless shirt, he often says, "I sis machines are black, five are Hispanic, Chicago in 1975. He met his wife, Jackie, in wish 1 had her blood." Like most dialysis pa­ two are white and one is Asian. The racial 1977, the same year he received the first tients, Robert is chronically anemiC, which breakdown of Neomedica's morning shift sign that his kidneys were failing. A job keeps him weak as well as chilled. nearly matches Chicago's transplant popula­ physical revealed protein in his urine-a Robert found a chair in Neomedica's wait­ tion, though the center has a smaller share warning that his kidneys were not function­ ing room and turned to the Chicago Sun­ of whites than the city as a whole, accord­ ing as well as they should be. A kidney Times sports pages. His surroundings were ing to the Renal Network of Illinois, an biopsy later that year at Columbus Hospital reminiscent of a small school lunchroom. agency that monitors kidney transplant and showed Robert had a condition called focal Waiting patients gathered at two tables; a dialysis facilities. The poverty of Robert's glomerulosclerosis, a progressive scarring of few bought sodas from the Coke machine in dialysis group also mirrors the city's. For the kidneys that eventually destroys them. CHICAGO REPORTER • SEPTEMBER 1989 3 5 I C K AND P 0 0 R I N CHICAGO

Doctors are baffled by the disease's cause. bus to Neomedica and sat outside until a Steroids and chemotherapy are used to slow technician unlocked the door. its course, but they mayor may not work. Robert said he felt OK that morning, but Robert did not get treatment, however. The he's thin and sometimes moves so slowly next time he saw a doctor was four years that it's hard to believe he won the dozen later, in April 1981, when he showed up at basketball trophies stacked on the living Cook County Hospital with his kidneys room shelves. Determined to be good-na­ working at less than 5 percent of their nor­ tured, Robert does not question his fate or mal capacity and his blood pressure sky complain about how he's feeling, except to high. Robert had been unusually tired for other dialysis patients. "Poor Rob," said Ann, several months and had had trouble keeping one of the regulars on Neomedica's morning food down. Finally, when his ankles began shift. "He got so many problems. He tries to to swell at Latrice's 3rd birthday party, a do right. He tries to be happy-go-lucky." friend drove him to the emergency room. WHO PAYS? Occasionally Robert lets it slip out that "His blood pressure was high, blood clot­ he country's 150,000 dialysis patients there are things he misses, like drinking icy ting was not very good. His fluid was back­ are eligible for more government­ beers after an afternoon of basketball in the ing up, which could have caused heart fail­ funded health insurance than per­ hot Alabama sun. "The beer was so cold it ure," said Dr. Terrence Conway, the chair­ haps any other group of Americans. Medi­ felt like glass cutting my throat; it hurt but man of general medicine at County Hospital. care-primarily a federal insurance program it felt good. That was in the good old days, "He probably could have gone another three for the elderly-covers 80 percent of dialysis when I didn't have no kidney problems, weeks without one of his systems failing, patients' treatment at any age, as long as wasn't nobody calling me Daddy."' · but not much longer." they have worked and paid into the Social In July, Robert started working as a secu­ Why did Robert wait until he was in cri­ Security fund. The remaining 20 percent is rity guard, at $4.50 an hour. After dialysis sis to seek medical care? It may have been paid by private insurance, Medicaid, or in that Friday, he went home to bed. That that he just didn't understand. Illinois, a special state health department night he worked from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. and Cook County's medical history for Robert· program for the uninsured poor who do continued that shift for six straight days, says: "... a renal biopsy at Columbus Hospital not qualify for Medicaid. State records during which time he was dialyzed three showed focal glomerulosclerosis, but Mr. show that 38 percent of Chicago's 1,891 times. Banes neglected to continue his follow-up." dialysis patients qualify for public aid, 32 "Back to work?" asked Dr. Gordon Lang, This is what Robert recalls: "They told me percent use the state subsidy and 29 per­ as he passed Robert on his rounds the next I had something on my kidney, but nobody cent have private insurance. The state pro­ Friday. Lang, a nephrologist and the presi­ told me to come back. I was thinking there gram picks up only dialysis patients and dent of Neomedica, was moving quickly. wasn't that much wrong. I thought whatev­ hemophiliacs. There IS no net to catch "Yeah, but I'm sitting most of the time," er it was might clear up on its own." near·poor people with other chronic dis­ Robert replied, sounding surprised at the doc­ In the medical record, a Cook County so­ eases, such as cancer. -L.A. tor's interest. Dr. Lang did not hear; he was cial worker wrote that Robert told her, "I on to the next patient. don't have any money to pay the hospital surprised Robert was in the dark about the According to a 1985 RNI survey, only a bill." None of his short-term, low-paying jobs drastic implications of his kidney disorder. third of the patients who dialyze at a clinic have provided medical insurance, and he "When patients come to County with return to work once their treatments begin. was not enrolled in Medicaid. Conway said renal failure and say, 'Nobody ever told me And the state Department of Rehabilitative Robert's failure to get follow-up care is not this could happen,' they're usually right. Services has found jobs for only 13 of 23 dial­ uncommon. People who struggle to pay for They've been told but not in a way that ysis patients served this year. food and shelter may not think they have sticks. Robert was referred back for treat­ The high unemployment rate in the dial­ much to gain from spending scarce dollars ment' but being young and feeling well, he ysis population comes from a complicated for doctors' visits, especially when they do didn't have a lot of motivation to follow up.' mix of factors. First, dialysis itself is easily a not feel bad, he said. "For someone who is Robert says he is not angry that his kid­ part-time job, says the RNI's Cheryl Ander­ poor, health is not the highest priority." neys were dying without his realizing it. son, a dialYSis center nurse for 14 years. It's also possible that friends and family Then again, he rarely says that much of Counting travel, waiting and treatment were not pushing Robert to go to the doctor, anything disturbs him. "I look at dialysis time, it can eat up six hours a day, three Conway said. "People in Chicago's poorer like a setback. Why should you get down? times a week. neighborhoods are used to a lot of sick peo­ It just makes you sicker." Then, too, almost all dialysis patients are ple around. When someone says 'Some­ anemic. ''An eight-hour day can be very gru­ thing's wrong with my kidneys,' the auto­ • • • eling for a lot of them," Anderson said. matic response is not 'Well, what doctor are A bakery delivery man waS the only per­ Robert knows that all too well. you going to?' When you live in Lincol­ son on the street when Robert finished his (An expensive new drug, called erythro­ nwood, that's the first thing people ask you." seven-hour shift as a security guard at 5 a.m. poietin, has been hailed as the cure-all for ,Patricia Barber is a clinical transplant It was a Friday in late July and he had an dialysis-induced anemia. But so far in Chica­ specialist at U of I Hospital. She coached hour to kill before going to dialysis. At 3 go only hospital-based centers, which have a Robert through his first kidney transplant in a.m., he had eaten a salami sandwich Jackie larger financial cushion than for-profit dialy­ 1982. In January, his body rejected the trans­ made him, so he was not hungry, and he felt sis units, have begun using it. Neomedica, planted organ, and Barber is now getting awake, so he did not want a cup of coffee. for one, cannot afford it until the price him ready for a second transplant. She is not With nothing to do but wait, he took the drops, Lang said.)

4 CHICAGO REPORTER· SEPTEMBER 1989 5 I C K AND P 0 0 R I N CHICAGO

Fear of losing benefits also keeps dialysis That may be especially true if kidney ma­ patients from working. The Social Security chines are standing empty in their centers, Administration gives them a nine-month some dialysis experts contend. work trial period during which they may Doctors would have a tough time persuad­ keep all their wages. At the end of that ing Robert and Jackie to bring dialysis to a time, if they are earning a "substantial" in­ home with three children and a bed-ridden come-usually about $300 a month-their dis­ grandmother. "Let the experts handle it," ability payments are stopped. Jackie says. In late July, Robert did learn that he was losing $278 a month in disability benefits. • • • Ironically, it was not because of his current On the Fourth of July, Robert slumped in job, but one he held a year ago. He never re­ a chair next to the grill, spatula propped up ported it and did not intend to_ "When you on his knee. His eyes were glassy and he need the money, who needs to report it," he looked more drained than usual. He had not says. But because the Internal Revenue Ser­ been eating well and was chilled despite his vice shares its records with Social Security, Robert spends 40 hours a month having sweat suit. The next day he was to be ad­ the agency eventually found out. his blood cleaned by dialysis. mitted to the hospital so doctors could deter­ A 13-year veteran employee of Social Secu­ selves are not used to CAPD, which is easier mine why he had been urinating blood_ rity said almost no one on disability reports for patients than an older home method, so The Banes family holds back-porch barbe­ when they return to work: "They say, 'I'll they are not likely to promote it to an une­ cues on birthdays, holidays and sometimes get what I can get and worry about the fu­ ducated urban population, said Dr. Stephen Sundays_ Latrice and 3-year-old DeMarest, ture when it comes. I can't blame them." Korbet, the medical director of Circle Medi­ not to mention their parents, would have Meanwhile, employers are not anxious to cal Management, a Near-West Side dialysis been mightily disappointed had they skipped hire dialysis patients, whom they may as­ center with a large at-home population. Continued on page 11 sume will be ill frequently or drive up insur­ ance costs, Anderson said. CHICAGO DIALYSIS Other 16% There is one exception to this: Patients POPULATION who learn home dialysis are twice as likely to return to work as those who are treated at a clinic, the RNI survey found. That may White 20.5% be because some are healthier; patients with many complications need medically super­ vised dialysis. The at-home procedure also gives patients more independence and con­ Black 77.9% trol over their schedules. White 30.7% But most inner-city residents, who tend to be poorer and less-educated than their subur­ ban counterparts, attend clinics, even though Black 67% at-home dialysis costs are covered, said Joan Shephard, executive director of the National Kidney Foundation's Chicago office. Clinics VICTIMS OF HYPERTENSION· located in suburban Cook and DuPage coun­ RELATED KIDNEY FAILURE ties have slightly more patients on home dialysis than those in Chicago, RNI figures show. Overall, 9 percent of Chicago blacks BLACKS' KIDNEYS LOST TO PREVENTABLE DISEASE versus 14 percent of whites dialyze at home. he kidney failure that strikes young Among younger dialysis patients, the dis­ It is hard to say exactly how lack of in­ black men like Robert most often is parity is even more severe: 46 percent of come and education keep Chicagoans from Tcaused by a disease that never has to blacks between the ages of 25 and 44 suffer dialyzing at home. Some phYSicians may not damage the kidneys-high blood pressure. from hypertension-related kidney failure; for offer it to the poor, assuming they cannot Hypertension causes irreversible kidney fail­ young whites, that figure is only 14 percent. handle it. Yet poverty creates real barriers. ure, and more often, strokes, only when it is In fact, there are more black Chicagoans Patients on what is called continuous not controlled with medication with kidney failure caused by high blood home peritoneal dialysis (CAP D) must re­ Hypertension is found more than twice as pressure than white Chicagoans with kidney move wastes three times daily via a catheter often in blacks as whites. Blacks are younger failure, regardless of cause. surgically implanted in their abdomens. "If when it hits and suffer from more severe Awareness of the "silent killer"-high there are six people sharing a bathroom, you hypertension than whites. blood pressure has no symptoms-has in· may not have the sterile environment you The prevalence of high blood pressure creased since the 1970s when massive educa­ need," Shephard said. among blacks is reflected in Chicago's dialy­ tional campaigns were mounted. But the dis­ People with little education often are sis population. Nearly half the city's black ease still goes undetected or uncontrolled in leery of taking charge of their own medical dialysis patients suffer from hypertension, populations with limited access to quality care and would not push for home dialysis, compared to a quarter of white patients, ac­ health care, such as the urban poor. she said. On top of that, phYSicians them- cording to the Renal Network of Illinois. -L.A.

CHICAGO REPORTER • S!:PTEMBLR 1989 5 "BLACKS LOSE To '" IN CONSTRUCTION

By Michael Selinker

City's Minority Set-Aside Program Under Fire

group of Chicago-area contrac­ the association. In a later conversation, he Cincinnati, Philadelphia and a dozen other tors is working to overturn the denied that the group exists. But ~ director cities and states face serious legal battles, city of Chicago's minority set­ of a larger group, the Builders Association of while some cities, such as Minneapolis and A aside program, The Chicago Chicago, said it was approached by CMCA, Seattle, have suspended their programs Reporter has learned. The action follows the but declined an invitation to join the suit. rather than face protracted litigation. U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in City of Though La Koma would not disclose Chicago's corporation counsel is waiting Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., which has put CMCA's officers, he named Raymond Becker, for the report of a committee appointed by most state and local set-asides in jeopardy. president of the powerful Illinois Road Daley in May to gauge whether the set­ In May, a group called the Chicago Builders Association, as the contact for the aside program is constitutional. Committee Metropolitan Contractor's Association group. Becker did not return repeated calls. members are still gathering data and will (CMCA) sent a letter to white contractors, The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in make recommendations later this year. saying it had "formed for the purpose of January required state and local set-asides to Judson Miner, corporation counsel for challenging the [set-aside] program of the be defined narrowly to remedy documented mayors Washington and Eugene Sawyer, City of Chicago in light of the Supreme past discrimination. Chicago sets aside 25 thinks the city's program can be justified, Court's ruling in the Croson case," which it percent of city contracts for minorities and but believes it is vulnerable to a suit. would do with a lawsuit against the city. 5 percent for women, as specified in Mayor "The crucial element was preparing the The group seeks "at least one contractor Harold Washington's executive order in 1985 documentation for the program," Miner said. who has lost business as a result of the and re-issued by Mayor Daley in April. "It had been done fairly loosely [in 1985], be­ Chicago [set-aside] willing to lend their name After raising the money for legal costs, cause the requirements weren't as stringent to the suit," according to the letter, which CMCA plans to file suit on behaU of a plain­ then." Because of that weak documentation, was obtained by the Reporter. tiff it recruits; all other members or donors the city may have to spend $500,000 to re­ The letter listed Matthew La Koma, an will be left off the suit for "maximum con­ search and justify the program, Miner said. Oak Brook attorney, as the contact for fidentiality," according to the letter. The As an executive order, Chicago's program CMCA. La Koma is affiliated with the firm group will ask for summary judgment, so has one protection from lawsuits that city Callahan, Fitzpatrick, La Koma & McGlynn. the case would be decided without proving ordinances do not, said Diane Carol Bast of In his first conversation with the the contractor was harmed by the program. the Heartland Institute, an anti-regulation Reporter, La Koma said he did not write the Similar suits already have dismantled set­ research group that called for the abolition letter, but was the legal representative for asides in Atlanta and Michigan. Boston, of set-asides in a recent study. Executive or-

6 CHICAGO REPORTER • SEPTEMBER 1989 FTER YEARS SPENT STAKING OUT A TERRITORY IN ILLINOIS highway construction, many black and other minority contractors find themselves frozen out by new competition: white women. Changes in federal and state law have handed white female con­ tractors millions of dollars in road contracts that they could not haveA gotten as recently as two years ago-contracts formerly earmarked for blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and Asians. In just two years, the money going to women in Illinois more than doubled, while funds to blacks were cut in half. "Black contractors are going out of business now," said Cleveland Chapman, president of Midwest Contractors for Progress, a Chicago-based associ­ ation of black contractors. "They just can't get the work. If a majority [white] contractor is looking for a minority subcon­ protests last year, almost 70 percent of the tractor, they'd just as soon go with a woman set-aside contracts went to women this year. they know, not one of us." • Of the top 10 recipients of IDOt set­ At stake is a share of $700 million in an­ asides in northeast Illinois in 1988, four are nual state and federal highway funds award­ women. In 1986, the top 10 was made up en­ ed by the Illinois Department of Trans­ tirely of minOrities. portation (IDOT), which gives out 60 percent Many women, white and minority, wel­ )ME of all set-aside contracts in the state. Before come the changes in the federal and state 1987, 10 percent of road contracts-roughly laws, which brought unprecedented increas­ $70 million-was set aside for minorities by es in business. But minorities-and now some • federal law, and mOT administratively women-worry about the toll on minority awarded an additional 3 percent to women. bUSinessmen, who already complain of dis­ rAME But in 1987, the U.S. Congress mandated crimination and unfair business practices. that women compete for the 10 percent al­ Some contractors speculate that the lotted to minorities by the Federal Highway changes in the laws were intended to de­ Administration (FHWA), ending the separate stroy set-asides by making the two biggest set-aside for women on federally subsidized recipients fight each other. projects. About that time, contractors also There was little such tension until 1987. began feeling the effects of a 1984 Illinois Governed by a 1982 law, 10 percent of all law requiring that women receive at least funds used on federally subsidized highway half the set -aside funds on road projects projects was set aside for firms owned by using only state money. members of races or ethnic groups that had ders must be re-issued by each mayor, so a The changes have rocked the construction suffered discrimination, such as blacks, negative court ruling would not prevent the industry at a time when recent U.S. Hispanics and American Indians. White next mayor from re-imposing it, she said. Supreme Court rulings have jeopardized women were not included in this category. However, a recent push by aldermen to many of the nation's set-aside programs, in­ The 10 percent set-aSide, by most stan­ adopt the set-aside program as an ordinance cluding that of the City of Chicago. dards, worked. From 1982 to 1986; between would, if successful, make the program an An analysis of contracts for federal and 9 percent and 12 percent of all Illinois high­ even more attractive target, Bast said. state road projects in Illinois shows: way contracts went to minorities, though no At the state level, legislators scrambled to • Women contractors, almost all who are mandatory figure was specified for women. reauthorize the l11inois set-aside law before white, received barely a sixth of the money By 1986, the national political climate had adjourning in July. Due to the Croson ruling, that minorities got in 1986, but now get as changed. Six years of an administration that all state set-asides except transportation con­ much as all minority groups combined. The vigorously opposed civil rights measures led tracts have been suspended temporarily amount of road construction money award­ some conservatives to challenge set-asides, until the council that administers them con­ ed to women-owned firms by the state of claiming they interfered with competition. ducts studies to measure past discrimination. Illinois skyrocketed to more than $43 mil­ The conservatives were pacified by a con­ l11inois' highway program is governed by lion in 1988, from $17 million in 1986. This gressional compromise: the 10 percent federal federal law, which the court ruling did not increase occurred at a time when total road highway set-aside would stand, but women affect. But for state-only contracts, "If there spending fell nearly 10 percent in the state. would be included in the definition of mi­ are in fact non-minority contractors who • Minorities received less than $44 mil­ norities. Not a word was raised in either can allege an injury, then Croson opens up lion in 1988, down from $72 million in 1986. house against this change. an avenue to lawsuits," said Northwestern Blacks took the brunt of the drop; their road Every black member of Congress voted for University Law Professor Mayer Freed. contracts plummeted to $21 million in 1988, the 1987 highway bill that contained the If CMCA gets its way, Illinois may learn barely half of the $40 million they got in change. But after the dust settled they real if its law is constitutional. CMCA's promise: 1986. Of all minorities, only Hispanics posted ized what they had approved. "The long term effects of the result of the a modest increase in those two years. "That was one of those things that some lawsuit could well involve all other state­ • On the Dan Ryan Expressway renova­ of my colleagues on the other side of the funded programs, as well as other county tion, women received almost three-quarters aisle slipped by us," said Rep. Charles Hayes, and city programs in the state." of all the contracts reserved for minorities a black Chicago Democrat. "When they in- -Michael Selinker and women through 1988. Even after black continued on page 9

CHICAGO REPORTER· SEPTEMBER 1989 7 he interior of the Kapo­ foreman, who owns a fourth of the company-began in tragedy. Her vich house is impeccably interior design business collapsed when bone cancer sidelined her decorated: wicker bas­ in 1978. 'It was either amputate or be an experiment,' she said. So Tkets hang on yellow-gold she chose to have a metal bone implanted in her leg. After eight walls, evoking a casual airiness. operations in three years she was ready to go back to work. Weary Simone Kapovich knows what of decorating, she chose construction. she's doing with this house; a for­ "I knew the business," she said. "Blueprint reading wasn't hard. mer interior designer, she's an ex­ I knew the bookkeeping from my prior business. Living in the pert in making a house a home. steel mill area, having my father in the steel mills, my husband A walk downstairs, though, re­ being an ironworker-I naturally decided to go into construction." veals a different side of this South Still, she didn't have a reputation to build on. But she had one Holland bungalow. Wicker baskets big advantage: her husband and her four sons were ironworkers are replaced by highway plans who knew others who would work for the new company. Her first tacked to the walls; soothing contract was a big one: the reconstruction of the Lake Shore Drive Simone Kapovich wallpaper yields to bare concrete. S-curve. With that $235,000 job as credentials, she subcontracted This is S&J Construction, Simone Kapovich's steelwork company. on other projects for a few hundred thousand dollars each year. From this basement, 65 ironworkers are dispatched to rebuild In a 1987 $1.1 million joint venture with PAL Industries, she con­ much of the Dan Ryan's vast metal frame. Thanks in large part to tracted for the steelwork on the Dan Ryan pre-construction work. set-asides, in eight years her company has become a $5 million a By then, new federal laws benefiting women-owned businesses had year business in an industry dominated by men. gone into effect, and when the actual work on the Ryan came up, "When I come in talking about bidding and construction, people S&] was a hot commodity_ She has received more than four times say, 'My gosh, you really know what you're talking about,' " she as much as the next most successful set-aside contractor on the said. "Men, women,-no one believes a woman can do the job," Dan Ryan, PAL. With this success, Kapovich is frank about the The prime contractors on the Dan Ryan renovation think she benefits she has received from the one-goal set-aside program, can do the job. She has netted nearly $10 million in Dan Ryan con­ "The only way that it's helped is that I'm able to bid for my fair tracts, more than any other minority or woman-owned business. share," she said. "I'm finally able to compete in the marketplace. S&J Construction-the "]" stands for John, Simone's husband and That's what our country's all about, fair competition." -M.5. One Woman Thrives, One Man Struggles

o three miles west on 1-294 from mostly white, mid­ nate the industry. Subcontractors, dle class South Holland and you'll reach the city of like Unity, must purchase asphalt Markham. A predominantly black, poor south suburb, from the large firms and are G Markham is not a wellspring of successful businesses. bound by the prices they set, Eddie Turner knows this well. In the late 1970s, Turner invested Turner said. Because these prices $15,000 to start an asphalt laying company out of a small alu­ are prohibitively high, he said, minum trailer. Set-asides helped him build the company, called subcon tractors often face the Unity Paving, into a $1 million a year business-until 1987. choice of working for no profit or After working on such major projects as the Lake Shore Drive not working at all. S-curve, Turner found he could not get road subcontracts. After Turner, like many subcontrac­ Congress in 1987 allowed prime contractors to sidestep small mi­ tors, also complains of not being nority-owned firms for those owned by white women, Turner paid promptly by prime contrac­ learned the larger companies no longer needed him. tors_ "With slow payout, when "Once they combined the two set-asides into one, the business you run out of money, the general Eddie Turner went out the door," Turner said. "It just went away." contractors don't want to carry In March, after two years of dwindling business and slow pay­ you," Turner said. "You start robbing from another job to pay for ment by majority contractors, Turner closed up shop. He now stays the asphalt or for the employees_ You get the reputation of not at home, living on his wife's income and his veteran's pension. paying your bills, but they don't know you're not getting paid." The reason for that pension made running his business difficult Turner said he had these problems in the early 1980s as well, enough even when he had greater access to set-asides. While in but had the work to make ends meet. When new federal rules the Vietnamese demilitarized zone in 1969, a Viet Cong bullet cut went into effect in 1987, however, Unity was one of the dozens of through his spine, paralyzing him from the chest down. black-owned companies that saw its business drop precipitously. Confined to a manual wheelchair, Turner went to business Turner saw the Dan Ryan project as the only chance to save his school in Forest Park and studied accounting. With some federal decade-old company. He bid on several Ryan jobs, but saw them go contracts, he started his business in 1976. Business progressed slow­ to women-owned firms. He then filed for bankruptcy. ly until 1984, when Unity did $1.5 million worth of the asphalt He hopes someday to open a new business. As a disabled veter­ work on Lake Shore Drive. With an $800,000 job in Palatine, an, he might be eligible for Veterans Adminstration set-asides_ But Unity's receipts for the mid-1980s were $1 million a year. with all set-asides coming under attack this year, Turner is not op­ But Turner learned that the paving business was not easy. A timistic. "If I can't survive with the set-asides the way they are few large companies, which have their own asphalt plants, domi- now," he said, "how can I survive if they're taken away?"- M.S.

8 CHICAGO REPORTER . SEPTEMBER 1989 SET-ASIDE tors on the Ryan project were fulfilling their thirds of set·asides for minorities. In a con· Continued from page 7 goal primarily with women, in accordance gressional hearing he castigated the "white cluded women, no one thought it would be with the federal law. And lOOT could do racist male-dominated society [that] decided used in this way. It amounted to an emascu· nothing about it. "If we tried to differentiate instead to have their women make up at lation of the civil rights movement." between the two groups, we could get sued," the expense of ... minorities." The law covered only federal funds, but said Rowan Woolfolk, lOOT's former small· The verbal fireworks surprised some in Illinois, state transportation money al· business bureau chief. women, such as Rep. Lynn Martin, a white ready was falling under a similar program. The maelstrom that followed in 1988 saw Republican from northwest IJIinois: "I talk to In 1984, the IJIinois legislature passed the black leaders, including then-Mayor Eugene women, and they're saying, 'You mean I'm first set·aside act to affect most state agen· Sawyer, threatening to shut down the Ryan going to hear complaints from the very peo· cies. The act mandated that 10 percent of all if more contracts and jobs were not given to pIe I walked with for civil rights? We should state contract funds would be set aside for blacks. lOOT responded by giving two·thirds be in this together.''' minorities. At least half of that 10 percent of the unskilled and half of the skilled jobs For now, the rift between minorities and had to be given to women. on the renovation to minorities and women, women has been overshadowed by chal· Black Democrats split on the bill. Though but was helpless to change the contracts. lenges being mounted against set-asides. A none voted against it, six black legislators ei­ Though there have been no protests this call for unity is being heard. ther were absent or did not take sides on year, the situation remained unchanged "We've spent too much time fighting each the measure. "I wasn't happy with it," said when the contracts for the second phase other," said Jacqui Bradley, a black woman then·Rep. Carol Moseley Braun, now Cook were let for 1989, as almost 70 percent of who owns Directions Metropolitan, a high· County Recorder of Deeds. "I didn't think it the set-asides again went to women. way landscaping company. "Some issues just made sense to divide up that percentage be· The Ryan controversy has heightened ten­ demand our unification. The issues that sep· tween women and minorities. It seemed to sions between minorities and white women. arate us are negligible right now. We're just be a dilution of the intent of the act, which Rep. Gus Savage, a South Side black Demo· fighting to keep the set·aside programs could have the effect of pitting one excluded crat, sponsored a bill reserving at least two- alive." group against another." The new rules were to be in full swing by 1987, so lOOT scrambled to make certain Transportation Set-Asides 1986-88 minorities and women each got 5 percent of (in millions of dollars) state· funded contracts. The state met its $45 goals for minorities immediately, but initial· ly could not meet its goal for women. Be­ $40 cause the annual amount of money coming $35 out of lOOT fell by more .than $220 million $30 between 1984 and 1987, the gains women • 1986 [J 1988 made came at the expense of minorities. $25 Many minorities looked to the $210 mil­ $20 lion Dan Ryan renovation, the nation's $15 largest highway project, to alleviate the cri­ sis. But when bids were solicited in late $10 1987, the force of the new laws was felt. $5 !DOT, which had opposed the federal $0 change defining women as minorities, found that white male primary contractors pre· Blacks Women Hispanics American Other ferred to subcontract to white women. Indians Minorities "When the [federal] quotas for the women and minorities were separate, it put more pressure on finding minorities qualified to do Top 10 Chicago-area Recipients of Set-Aside Road Contracts the work,· said Jack Gallagher, president of (shaded entries indicate women-owned firms) Gallagher Asphalt Corporation, a majority Company 1988 Amount Race/Ethnicity 1986 ranki.ng contractor. "When the two goals were com· bined, the pressure for both was equalized Ald·Cass Electric, Lake Bluff $6,475,661 Black 2 [and] some contractors felt it was better to S&J Consiruction. South Holland $4,571,343 White go with the women." Abari Construction, Chicago $2,765,316 Hispanic 14 People offer many reasons for why white Guerra Construction, Chicago $2,683,390 Hispanic 1 male contractors give more subcontracts to Polmex Construction, Worth $1,714,361 Hispanic 10 white women. Some are logical: contractors Aston Enterprises, Chicago $1,680,364 Black prefer to work with people they know, and PAL Industries, Lemont $~664,826 White 20 white men are more likely to know white Areatha Construction, Chicago $1,412,504 Black 22 women than black men. Barricade Lites, Addison $1,292,720 Hispanic 5 But others charge that white men, who Peter~en Steel, Northfield $1,252,982 White receive about $600 million in state road con· tracts each year, want to destroy set·asides Notes: These 10 firms received the most set·aside contracts from the Illinois Department of Transportation in Dis· trict One (Cook, Will, Lake, DuPage, Kane and McHenry counties) between January and December 1988. A dash by driving minorities out of business. in the 1986 rankings means the firm received no set·aside money in 1986. Regardless of their motives, white contrac· Source: Illinois Department of Transportation, analyzed by The Chicago Reporter. CHICAGO REPORTER· SEPTEMBER 1989 9 KEEPING CURRENT Nicholas Shuman

Plight of Black Youth Called a 'Crime Against Humanity'

he Nation magazine devoted nearly all of its July 24-31 issue to a series uthor Wallace Terry is assembling a of moving articles by black women on "Scapegoating the Black Family," book titled "Missing Pages, An Oral with race, class and gender discrimination in America as the underly­ History of Black Journalists in America, 1940-1990," according to the Gan­ ing theme. The editors turned control over content, style and the se­ nett Foundation, his sponsors. The founda­ Tlection of contributors to author-professors Jewell Handy Gresham and Margaret tion's GF magazine printed selections from B. Wilkerson, who introduced the work thus: the work, which records the larp:ely untold "We believe that the desperate plight of the masses of black infants, children stories of journalists who walked the some­ and youth in America represents a crime against humanity, and it is this intol­ times life-threatenmg line between the white and black communities. erable set of circumstances in all its dimensions that we ask the nation to ad­ One was told by Ben Holman, who in dress NOW." To write the concluding "Challenge to the Nation for the Year 1961 was a reporter for the late Chicago 2000," they chose their one male contributor, actor-writer-social activist Ossie­ Daily News when he infiltrated Elijah Davis, who wrote: Muhammad's Black Muslims and wrote "The most immediate responsibility faced by African-Americans is the restora­ their "inside story." Though much of what tion to black youth of their self-esteem and sense of place in a world so cruelly Holman wrote was positive, he said, he re­ ceived calls threatening him with death. snatched from them every single day, and to encourage within them a visionary Holman later went to work for WBBM­ view. A second great responsibility is that of teaching the nation, so that white TV, a CBS outlet, becoming Chicago's first Americans cannot continue to hide so grotesquely behind the myth of national black TV reporter. One day, he said, he was equality while the relentless quiet and unquiet eradication of millions of their on a subway platform when "This brother fellow citizens proceeds. The 20th century has made such innocence obscene." recognized me" and "started down the plat­ form toward me. The subway came just in time, and I ran into the train. He didn't." idespread and wide-ranging ssociate Professor Christopher In 1964, while working on the schism be­ media comment accompanied Robert Reed of Roosevelt University tween Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1989 • _wrote in Illinois Issues. the latter told him: "We did try to bump affirmative action decisions. Among them: "[Harold] Washington's policies on federal you off at the subway.... It wasn't that your • Perhaps most troubling is that recent rul­ funding, low- and moderate-income housing series was so unbalanced. It's ... that you ings force "minorities and women to fight all and protected manufacturing districts em­ were undercover and all that upset us." over again a costly battle they thought they powered community organizations all over Still later Holman was covering a Muslim had won 25 years ago." -William Raspberry the city. Particularly effective was his em­ convention in Chicago when a Boston min­ of the Washington Post Writers Group. powerment of Chicago's black neighbor­ ister whipped the crowd into a frenzy by • "Coyly, the court turns 180 degrees .... The hoods-neighborhoods that had consistently calling Holman "the traitor ... the one who majority displays icy indifference both to the been denied access to civic necessities: devel­ betrayed the beloved Honorable Elijah hopes of discrimination victims and to the opment and employment. Muhammad." As the crowd yelled, "Kill him! reasonable expectation that the Supreme "... After the election of Richard M. Daley, Kill him!" Fruit of Islam bodyguards threw a Court's words lin earlier decisions] mean many neighborhood groups fear the down­ protective ring around him. Holman conclud­ what they say." - The New York Times. town economic focus of Daley the Elder will ed: "Nearly 20 years later, I learned the • The court did "a good job of balancing the be instituted again, to the detriment of name of that Boston minister. It was Louis need to compensate for past racism with the Washington's legacy of 'bedrock democracy.' " Farrakhan," now the Black Muslim leader. duty not to unduly penalize the innocent... [It] hardly deserves the hysteria that has n the July Chicago magazine cover article exploring the South Side, senior editor David greeted each of its decisions on race-related Jackson found a silver lining: "The Horvaths [Dorothy and William of W. 60th Pl.], like laws."-Chicago Tribune. many South Siders, have an attitude about race relations that is hardly ever reported in • "Lee Avila, Los Angeles County chairwom­ the media, or seen by the rest of the world: They proudly point to the black family that lives an of the Republican National Hispanic As­ on the block-and has lived there for more than 80 years-and to the Mexican newcomers sembly ... argued the rulings would not affect who are keeping their roofs fixed and their lawns trimmed. Hispanics in a significant way .... Many [His­ "You see that kind of pride all over the South Side .... 'We're in this together,' Bob Fernandez panics] feel that employers will continue to says. 'Black and white, that's all there is to it. We're going to get along because we have to ... : integrate their work forces of their own ac­ "Community groups ... are working hard to stem panic-peddling and build a tenuous racial cord."-Hispanic Link Weekly Report. balance on the Southwest Side,' Jackson reports. 'They see the area as an experiment in har­ • "Despite their tilt to the right, the justices mony upon which the city's future hangs. 'I'm really convinced that in this place we can de­ have not totally rolled back affirmative ac· vise model systems,' says Marie Whitney, a staffer at Southwest Women Working Together.... tion."- Newsweek. 'There's so much potential, so many opportunities to establish racial harmony.' "

10 CHICAGO REPORTER • SEPTEMBER 1989 KIDNEY FAIWR£ Marest. She took packets of low-salt French PUBLISHER Continued from page 5 dressing, salt and sugar he saved from his Roy Larson the July 4th celebration because Robert was meals, as well as a roll of medical tape and ACTING EDITOR not feeling well. Robert often doesn't feel the carefully folded foil Brianna's cake had John Schrag welL What energy he does have he often de­ been wrapped in. ASSISTANT EDITOR votes to cuddling and teasing his baby girl, Then she gave Robert $5 to pay for his Jennifer Robles Brianna. hospital TV, which costs $3.25 a day. Robert REPORTERS Jackie tossed a salad and mounded chick­ walked Jackie slowly to the elevator. Laurie Abraham en, ribs and hamburgers into a large alu­ Robert left the hospital early the next af­ Barnaby Dinges minum roasting pan. Robert grilled for a ternoon. Doctors told him to return Monday Karen Snelllng while, then Jackie took over. for surgery. The medical tests had revealed OFFICE STAFF In the front room, Mrs. Jackson sat in her that the blood was coming from the stump Leslie Owens, manager wheelchair and ate from her plate of food. of his rejected kidney, which had been re­ Herdest Cummings, assistant She wore a red-and-white gingham house moved in the spring, and they wanted to CIRCULATION DIRECTOR dress and sat up almost erect. When Brianna correct the problem. They called late that af­ DiAnne Walsh scuttled into the room, she watched her ternoon and told him they had changed carefully. It was quiet back on the porch, ex­ their minds; they would wait to see if the CONSULTING EDITOR cept when two fire trucks screamed out of bleeding cleared up on its own. It did. Donna Rosene Leff the station behind the family's apartment. SENIOR EDITOR Robert perked up when his 20-year-old (Next month: Waiting for a new kidney) Ann Grimes (on leave) half-sister came over. "See, he looks a lot bet­ RESEARCH ASSISTANT ter," Jackie said ruefully. "He gets tired of the Eduardo Camacho same old faces." INTERNS Reporter Wins Stick'()'Type Michael Selinker • • • Roberta Sweeper Robert sat on the edge of his hospital bed, Assistant Editor Jennifer Robles' investiga­ EDITOR c!r PUBLISHER EMERITUS his arms wrapped around his queasy stom­ tion of the city of Chicago's mishandling of John A. McDermott ach. He looked all the more spindly in the the AIDS epidemic took top honors among loose hospital gown. That morning, doctors non-daily publications in the Chicago News­ EDITORIAL BOARD had anesthesized him and looked for the Benjamin J. Kendrick, chair paper Guild's Stick-OoType competition this Kathleen McCourt, vice chair source of bleeding through a tube inserted year_ Robles' article, published in March Henry Binford Luis M. Sakes into his urethra. Robert was worn out. Since 1988, was judged best of the entries in the Oga Cho Bruce Sagan he had been at the hospital, he had not hard-news, non-deadline category. The judges A. Daniel Feldman Frank B. Santos been urinating as much blood, which frus­ described the article as "a story that reports Michael P. Fogel Paul H. Sherry trated him and Jackie. They felt they almost the outrageous handling of a serious problem Ngoan Le Nicholas A. Shuman had to prove he was sick. What seemed to and the indifference to human suffering." Sharon Sutker McGowan Faith Smith frustrate Robert just as much, at least for Ralph Otwell Charles S. Spivey Jr. the moment, was the TV report that Bulls' Staff Changes: With this issue Barnaby Felix M. Padilla Ricardo Tostado coach Doug Collins had been fired. "That's a Dinges joins the staff of The Chicago Re­ Eugene Pekow Betty Willhoite Dorris Jean Pickens hard pill to swallow," he said. porter as a general aSSignment reporter. A From his bed, Robert could see Jackie ar­ former Chicago school teacher and graduate DESIGN c!r PRODUCTION rive late in the afternoon. She is 5' 10" inch­ of Northwestern University's Medill School Diane Hutchinson es and weighs 23 pounds more than her of Jourrfalism, Dinges comes from the Peoria Desktop Edit Shop gaunt husband's 137. She walked slowly past Journal Star, where he covered bUSiness, pol­ the nursing station looking straight ahead, itics and regional trends for three years. moving almost regally. Also effective this month, Roy Larson has She pulled up a chair. "So what happened been appOinted Acting Executive Director of with Doug Collins?" Robert filled her in, and the Community Renewal Society. He will THE CHICAGO then moved on to his medical update. "I'm serve in that post until a permanent succes­ going away for a while," she interrupted. sor is found for outgoing CRS Director Paul REPORTER "What are you all going to do without me?" Sherry. Larson will continue as publisher of Robert did not reply. He knows, as she the Reporter. Managing Editor John Schrag does, that she's going nowhere. But Jackie is has been appointed Acting Editor. The Chicago Reporter is an investigative exhausted. Today was her day to pay the monthly that identifies, analyzes and re­ bills, and she had ridden the bus for hours Desktop Debut: This month marks the ports on the social, economic and political in 90-degree heat. "I need the bed," she said. first issue of The Chicago Reporter to be Ismes of metropolitan OUcago with a spe­ Jackie emptied the stuffed grocery bag she produced on its new in-house desktop pub­ dal focus on race and poverty. was carrying. It contained two new T-Shirts, lishing system. The system, made possible by underwear and socks for Robert, a day·old a grant from the Amoco Foundation, will Published monthly by the Community Re· piece of Brianna's birthday cake, a can of save the Reporter time and money in pro­ newal SoCiety, 332 South Michigan Ave., Sprite, four plums and a bunch of grapes. ducing each month's issue. Aside from a re­ Chicago, l11inois 60604 (312) 427-4830. Before she left, her bag was once again turn to a smaller page size (8 112" by 11"), we Subscription price is $38.00 per year. filled. Robert gave her a piece of chocolate have tried to maintain the previous design Copyright © 1989 Community Renewal cake from his dinner to take home to De- of the Reporter. Society. All rights reserved. CHICAGO REPORTER· SEPTEMBER 1989 n FOR THE RECORD

~ Three papers on Jesse Jackson ~ AIDS is becoming the potential No. 1 killer of peacetime ~ Chester L. Blair in June be­ were presented by Howard U.S. soldiers, according to a study published in the New came the first black president of University students at the annual England Journal of Medicine. The two-year study, beginning in the Chicago Bar Association. A convention of the Association for October, 1985, found that new infections with the AIDS virus founding partner in the firm of Education in Journalism and among soldiers are occuring at a rate of 600 a year and that Blair, Russell, & Cole, he headed Mass Communications, Aug.IO-l3 the incidence in black and Hispanic soldiers was 2.33 times the Cook County Bar Associa­ in Washington. The papers higher than in white soldiers. tion in 1977 and 1978. examine the black press and Jackson's 1984 presidential cam­ ~ Recipients receive less than ~ Three black women have ~ Sen. Paul Simon (0-111.) has paign, Washington Post and 35 cents of every dollar of total sought $14 million in damages proposed legislation to create a Newsweek coverage of the 1988 welfare expenditures here, ac· from Hyatt Hotels corporation, new U.S. Commission on Civil campaign and Jackson's image. cording to a new study by the saying the chain's national Rights, whose charter expires in Jackson also is the subject of a Center for Urban Affairs and "anti-braids" grooming policy vi­ November and which will auto­ new book, "Jesse Jackson and the Policy Research at Northwest· olates anti-discrimination laws. matically disband if Congress Politics of Charisma: The Rise and ern University. The rest, nearly does not act. The commission, Fall of the PUSH-Excel Program," two-thirds, goes to service pro· ~ The inequalities of Illinois' with half its members appoint­ by Ernest House (Westview Press, viders. The report, "Government school financing system were ed by the President and half by Boulder, CO.) Spending on the Poor in Cook highlighted by the Chicago Tri­ Congress, has been consumed by County, Illinois: Can We Do Bet· bune on July 9. McAulley Ele­ ideological differences and was ~ A study reported in the ter?" is available from the cen· mentary District 27 in DuPage largely ineffective during the June 16 Journal of the Ame,. ter, 2040 Sheridan Road, Evan­ County spends $10,900 per stu­ Reagan years. ican Medical Association alt­ ston 60208. dent, while Pembroke Elemen­ alyzes the effects of the tary District 259 in a predomi­ ~ Eduardo Camacho, re­ first six months of Illinois' ~ Sixteen states, led by New nantly black rural township search director of the Com­ mandatory premarital HIV York and including Illinois, had near Kankakee spends $2,100 munity Renewal Society, and screening program and a million or more black resi· per pupil, the Tribune noted. Ben Joravsky are co-authors concludes that such tests dents as of 1985 and four, with of a new book, "Against the are an expensive and in­ California first, had at least a ~ From 1979 to 1987, the stan­ Tide: The Middle Class in effective means of pre­ million Hispanics. A new report dard of living for the poorest Chicago." Another recent venting the spread of AIDS. released June 20 by the Census fifth of the U.s. population fell book, "Puerto Rican Chica­ The state legislature re­ Bureau, "Population Estimates by 9 percent while the living go," by Felix Padilla (Notre pealed the two-year-old law by Race and Hispanic Origin for standard lor the top fifth rose Dame Press), was reviewed in June. Louisiana, the only States, Metropolitan Areas and by 19 percent, according to a re­ in the July issue of Illinois other state to enact such a Selected Counties, 1981-1985," cently released report by the Issues. law, repealed it after six provides detailed figures for the House Ways and Means Com­ months. first time since the 1980 census. mittee. -Eric Lund

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12 CHICAGO REPORTER • SEPTEMBER 1989