Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
Cabrini-Green once consisted of 23 high-rises and 15,000 tenants. The community became nationally-known after a young girl was raped, beaten, poisoned and left for dead in 1997. Also, 7-year old Dantrell Davis was shot in 1992 as he walked to school. These tragedies came to define the community where outside observers felt a person couldn't even drive by without being in harm's way.
Hollywood even got in on the act by making the TV show "Good Times" based on a family that lived in a set of projects with a striking resemblance to Cabrini-Green. Also, the hit film "Candyman" featured a ghost killer who haunted the projects. Overall, the good residents of Cabrini-Green, who formed the majority of its citizens, were typically overshadowed by the bad elements. Most references to Cabrini-Green were not uplifting in any way.
My stomach turns when I think about some of the terrible things that have happened in Cabrini-Green, as well as similar events that have taken place in other low-income housing locations all throughout the country. It was a good decision to tear down the projects, which have become a symbol of the pain that comes with living urban America. Housing projects became the urban reservations created to congregate black people together in a land of lawlessness, hopelessness and fear.
While there is part of me that will be glad to see the Cabrini-Green era come to an end, there is another part of me that wonders what buildings will soon replace the projects. Gentrification looms large in every major city across America, after people in the suburbs realized that there is something good about being close to the city. One might hope that opportunities will exist for residents of Cabrini-Green to own their own homes and find ways to live in peace, pride and prosperity. The projects should not define you as a human being.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.