Life Inside the Ida B. Wells Projects: Chicago, IL Forgotten Battleground (Documentary)

[00:00:08]Ida B. Wells Homes, Chicago, Illinois.

[00:00:12]First constructed from 1939 to 1941 to house African-American tenants.

[00:00:20]The Ida B. Wells Homes, which also comprised the Clarence Darrow Homes and Madden Park Homes, was a Chicago Housing Authority public housing project located in the heart of the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago.

[00:00:36]The Ida B. Wells Homes consisted of row houses, mid-rises, and high-rise apartment buildings.

[00:00:44]It was Chicago's fourth public housing project built before World War II, significantly larger than others with 1,662 [music] units, including 860 apartment units, nearly 800 row house and garden apartment units, and included a city park, Madden Park.

[00:01:06]During the 1970s, the Chicago Housing Authority no longer screened applicants closely and operated on a first-come, first-served basis, which brought in many residents with criminal and drug addiction backgrounds.

[00:01:21]By the 1980s and 1990s, the projects had severely deteriorated, becoming overrun with drug addicts and criminals, making them extremely unsafe.

[00:01:34]The Black P Stones gang in particular asserted authority over the area and residents of the Ida B. Wells Homes.

[00:01:42]Eugene Hairston, co-founder of the Black P Stones, was shot dead at his home there in September 1988.

[00:01:51]Police presence in the projects was minimal, and daily gunfire echoed as Black P Stones and Gangster Disciples fought over drug turf.

[00:02:02]Residents witnessed rampant drug deals and violence throughout the community.

[00:02:08]A 30-minute audio documentary entitled Ghetto Life 101, released in 1993, was made by two teenagers from the project, Luallen Jones and Lloyd Newman.

[00:02:22]Their second audio documentary is titled Remorse, [music] the 14 stories of Eric Morse, which won a Peabody Award, deals with the murder of 5-year-old Eric Morse in Ida B.

[00:02:34]Wells.

[00:02:36]On October 13th, 1994, he was pushed from the window of a vacant 14th floor apartment by two older kids, 10-year-old Jesse Rankins and 11-year-old Taiwon Johnson, after he refused to steal candy for them.

[00:02:53]According to published reports, Eric was also stabbed and maced before he was dropped from the window.

[00:03:00]Morse's murder was notable for the young ages of the victim and the killers and brought further national attention to the plight of children in Chicago's housing projects.

[00:03:12]Rankins and Johnson, both minors at the time, were convicted for the murder of 5-year-old Morse and sentenced to 5 years in prison at each.

[00:03:22]Derek Lemon, Morse's older brother who struggled to save Eric in the moments before he was dropped, received a lawsuit settlement in Eric's death for more than $1 million from the Chicago Housing Authority and a private management company.

[00:03:39]Lemon himself is now currently serving a 71-year sentence for murder, charged in the fatal shooting of his aunt's boyfriend at a barbecue in 2006.

[00:03:53]>> 41-year-old Melody, who did not want her last name used, may soon be losing the only housing she has.

[00:04:00]By day, Melody walks the grounds of Chicago's Ida B. Wells housing development.

[00:04:06]Legal public housing residents still remain in Wells, but it and other projects are in the process of being demolished as part of the most ambitious public housing renewal plan in the country.

[00:04:18]The high-rises that once surrounded Wells are gone, and more and more vacant apartments are being boarded up as residents are moved out ahead of next year's scheduled demolition of the low-rises.

[00:04:31]These are the units that Melody and other illegal squatters sneak into when they need a place to sleep.

[00:04:40]>> So, what's the hardest part about staying in a place like this?

[00:04:42]>> Surviving, uh eating, uh maintaining your uh hygiene.

[00:04:48]>> College-educated, but now drug and alcohol addicted, she prefers the filthy bug-infested unit without electricity to a homeless shelter.

[00:04:59]>> In a shelter, they have a lot of rules and regulations, and even in a shelter, you have to leave at 5:00 in the morning. You can't come in till a certain time, and there's certain things, and then you're dealing with so many people, kids, all sorts of people.

[00:05:12]So, this is a little bit more private. I mean, it seems horrible, but it's private.

[00:05:19]>> Melody and 384 other squatters at this project, including 94 children, are about to lose the only living space they have.

[00:05:29]Because the re- >> In 1995, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development took control of the Chicago Housing Authority's public housing and moved to demolish the high-rises.

[00:05:44]Demolition of the Ida B. Wells Homes began in late 2002 with the high-rise buildings along Cottage Grove Avenue and concluded in August 2011 with the final structures at 3718 South Vincennes Avenue.

[00:06:01]In 2003, construction began on Oakwood Shores, a mixed-income community set to replace Ida B. Wells, Madden Park, and Clarence Darrow.