WTTW Journal; No. 302; Just Plain Hardworking ... Ten Good Lives

<v Narrator>Partial funding for this program was provided by the John D. <v Narrator>and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a catalyst for change. <v Hildur Lindquist>I really didn't want to come to America because I have it pretty good at <v Hildur Lindquist>home and I love my family and I was the only one that was going to break <v Hildur Lindquist>up the family. <v G.H. Wang>You talk about liberty. Liberty has to be balanced with discipline. <v G.H. Wang>You talk about justice. Justice has to be balanced with responsibility. <v G.H. Wang>Sense of duty. <v Florence Scala>I get angry because in this neighborhood now, it's lost. <v Florence Scala>It's lost. And, uh, that's sad because what's lost <v Florence Scala>is the immigrant past. What's lost is all those links. <v Frank Lumpkin>I did believe in in struggle. <v Frank Lumpkin>I believe that if you fight hard enough and long enough, you can win. <v Jim Ylisela>Every Chicago neighborhood produces special people.

<v Jim Ylisela>They're not always the best known people in town, but in their own neighborhoods, they <v Jim Ylisela>can't walk down the street without someone calling out their names. <v Jim Ylisela>They are unsung neighborhood heroes and they have each made a mark on the city they love. <v Jim Ylisela>In 1989, Chicago artist Margot McMahon decided to profile 10 such people <v Jim Ylisela>in an exhibit for the Chicago Historical Society. <v Jim Ylisela>She called the show Just Plain Hardworking, and her subjects, all <v Jim Ylisela>aged 60 and older, represent the best of Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods. <v Jim Ylisela>Margot sculpted each subject in clay and then cast the pieces in fondu <v Jim Ylisela>cement. Her brother, William Franklin McMahon, took their photographs. <v Jim Ylisela>Her father, Franklin McMahon, painted watercolors of their neighborhoods. <v Jim Ylisela>And Margot asked me, Jim Ylisela, to compose brief essays about each person. <v Jim Ylisela>At the historical society are ten remarkable Chicagoans were portrayed in these <v Jim Ylisela>four media. Now you'll meet them in a fifth on television.

<v Florence Scala>I think it's going to need more olive oil, Tony. <v Florence Scala>That's it. You know, we could do to that, Tony. <v Florence Scala>We could even add a little garlic. But I'm going to wait until you get the <v Florence Scala>beans in there. <v Jim Ylisela>It's eleven thirty on Taylor Street and the lunch crowd is on its way. <v Jim Ylisela>In the kitchen of her famous restaurant, Florence Scala is tasting every source and <v Jim Ylisela>critiquing every dish. [background dialogue] <v Jim Ylisela>Florence has spent her life on Taylor Street. <v Jim Ylisela>She was born here. The oldest daughter of Italian immigrants raised a family. <v Jim Ylisela>She's buried both her parents here. <v Jim Ylisela>She has also fought for her neighborhood, taking on city hall and the most powerful <v Jim Ylisela>mayor in the country. <v Florence Scala>It was a hectic, really gutsy neighborhood.

<v Florence Scala>Wasn't always a beautiful place. You know, it was crowded. <v Florence Scala>Most of people were poor. But it was incredible in that there was so <v Florence Scala>much life around here. <v Jim Ylisela>The neighborhood was a magnet for new immigrants from Europe and Mexico. <v Jim Ylisela>And for blacks from the south all looking for a better life. <v Jim Ylisela>Jane Addams took a look around and built Hull house to help the new arrivals get started. <v Jim Ylisela>But by the mid 1950s, the near west side needed help of its own, and urban <v Jim Ylisela>renewal brought new hope to the neighborhood. <v Florence Scala>By 1961, when things are really <v Florence Scala>going along and housing programs were really on the drawing <v Florence Scala>boards, the city decided that they would use this <v Florence Scala>area and your West Side, as well as a site for <v Florence Scala>the University of Illinois. <v Florence Scala>So, of course, that just ruined everything. <v Jim Ylisela>The neighbors were stunned at first and then angry. <v Jim Ylisela>On Valentine's Day in 1961, Florence Scala led a group protesting the decision

<v Jim Ylisela>to City Hall to meet with Mayor Richard J. <v Jim Ylisela>Daley. <v Florence Scala>We thought that we could appeal to the father in that <v Florence Scala>man and that he might change his mind. <v Florence Scala>And he gave us a whole big line of baloney. <v Florence Scala>Uh, he said that he would make sure that the developer who came in would be the <v Florence Scala>kind of a developer that would meet the needs of the people. <v Florence Scala>We told him that we didn't buy it that we were not gonna buy it. <v Florence Scala>And he was tough. <v Florence Scala>He was really something. <v Florence Scala>And I think back on it, the control he had all the way down the line. <v Richard J. Daley>No one will accept me in a decision if I think the decision hurts <v Richard J. Daley>the people of Chicago, on the contrary... <v Florence Scala>Our negotiations with City Hall absolutely broke down. <v Florence Scala>And then we decided some weeks or months <v Florence Scala>later that maybe we should sit in at City Hall. <v Florence Scala>And we did that. We sat in his inner office.

<v Florence Scala>No, they don't allow you to do that anymore because they learned a lot from what <v Florence Scala>happened with us. <v Jim Ylisela>Soon the fight turned ugly. <v Jim Ylisela>In 1962, as the protest reached its peak, Florence Scala's home <v Jim Ylisela>was bombed twice. <v Jim Ylisela>No one was injured and the crime was never solved. <v Jim Ylisela>But the violence took its toll on the protesters. <v Jim Ylisela>By June of 1963, the demolition crews began dismantling the neighborhood. <v Jim Ylisela>Hull House was one of the first to go. <v Florence Scala>We stood there on empty lot and watched it go down. <v Florence Scala>It was dreadful. <v Florence Scala>It was a creepy time. Let me tell you, really sad. <v Florence Scala>So many good people were here. <v Florence Scala>And the neighborhood was worth keeping because it worked. <v Florence Scala>It worked better than most neighborhoods and it would have been something <v Florence Scala>to which they could point with pride.

<v Florence Scala>Yeah, I do get mad at that when I think about the loss of <v Florence Scala>it all. <v Jim Ylisela>Today, few people remember Taylor Street, the way it used to be. <v Jim Ylisela>The neighborhood has become fashionable, bursting with new townhouses and young <v Jim Ylisela>professionals. Florence closed her restaurant last year, but she has no plans <v Jim Ylisela>to leave her home. <v Florence Scala>I just remember what it was growing up here. <v Florence Scala>I mean, you've lived with these people all your life, you know? <v Florence Scala>And now as I come closer to the end of my own. <v Florence Scala>I love to see them. And I and often when I say hello and I pass them by, <v Florence Scala>I think, gee I'm glad to see her today. I really am. <v Jim Ylisela>Florence isn't fighting City Hall anymore. <v Jim Ylisela>But she's not the retiring type either. <v Florence Scala>I get angry because, in this neighborhood now, it's lost. <v Florence Scala>It's lost. <v Florence Scala>And that's sad because what's lost is the immigrant

<v Florence Scala>past. What's lost is all those links. <v Florence Scala>What's lost is the place that you could point to and say that French built that <v Florence Scala>church. Uh, you know, Maxwell Street had all the Jews in it. <v Florence Scala>It's homogenizing itself, and and the people who are <v Florence Scala>making money are people in real estate. <v Florence Scala>And the people who are making it in this neighborhood are <v Florence Scala>all people who have political clout. <v Florence Scala>And that makes me sick. <v Florence Scala>So I get mad at that too. <v Photographer>Smile. <v Frank Drehobl>Oh, OK. <v Photographer>Relax. <v Frank Drehobl>Beveled and june glass. Beveled and...

<v Photographer>Now when they close all these churches, what are they going to do about the windows in <v Photographer>those? <v Frank Drehobl>They're taking some out, restoring them downstairs for the Chicago Historical Society. <v Frank Drehobl>1950, 1960. They were still doing loads of churches <v Frank Drehobl>in the area. There were churches in Chicago, uh built, <v Frank Drehobl>and we had sometimes six or eight contracts for a church windows in one year, <v Frank Drehobl>which kept us busy for two or three years. <v Frank Drehobl> [Music] <v Jim Ylisela>Frank Drehobl was born into the stained glass business. <v Jim Ylisela>The year was 1919, and Frank's father, a 30 year old German immigrant, <v Jim Ylisela>had just opened a shop with his brothers on North Lincoln Avenue near George Street.

<v Frank Drehobl>I was one year old and and he <v Frank Drehobl>started a business and had his two brothers here and three or four others. <v Frank Drehobl>His first big contract was with, um, Seeburg Piano Corporation to do <v Frank Drehobl>a thousand windows a month, a thousand piano panels in stained glass <v Frank Drehobl>each month. Plus the bungalow windows. Bungalows being built on the northwest side <v Frank Drehobl>of Chicago, southside. <v Frank Drehobl>When I was five years old, I lived just a block away. <v Frank Drehobl>George and Southport and I was here most of the days just <v Frank Drehobl>looking around. <v Frank Drehobl>Talking to the workers. [Music] <v Frank Drehobl>My grandfather lived a block away in the house that I was born in, and we would travel <v Frank Drehobl>to the Corner Tavern and get his pail of beer and bring it to him.

<v Frank Drehobl>Well those were horse and buggy days for the start in 1919 there was still, uh, <v Frank Drehobl>milk wagons pulled by horses and, uh, little <v Frank Drehobl>Italian wine on the side on the vegetable wagon. <v Frank Drehobl>And, uh, they all came to the alley and ragsaline, uh, wagons <v Frank Drehobl>and, uh, it was slow and <v Frank Drehobl>measured existence. We enjoyed though, much more than the race that's going on today. <v Jim Ylisela>In those days, the neighborhood was German and Polish. <v Jim Ylisela>The German community, nearly one fifth of Chicago's population, flourished along <v Jim Ylisela>Lincoln Avenue. Frank's father hired many of his finest craftsmen from the neighborhood. <v Jim Ylisela>Some of them had been making stained glass for 60 years. <v Jim Ylisela>[Music] <v Frank Drehobl>Have everything numbered, and we have small

<v Frank Drehobl>two inch by three inch samplesup in our sample charts. <v Frank Drehobl>And if we want to go into box 420, we know <v Frank Drehobl>that's a green glass. If we go to box, uh two hundred and fifty, that's a blue glass, <v Frank Drehobl>and box a hundred and twenty five is a white milky glass. <v Frank Drehobl>So we know...my daughter, Angela, she knows almost, we mention a number, <v Frank Drehobl>a box number, she knows the color of the glass in there, so we leave a lot of it up to <v Frank Drehobl>her now. My dad always used to say, you <v Frank Drehobl>do something good for somebody and they'll remember it for the rest of their days. <v Frank Drehobl>So that's our been our policy and philosophy, and it's worked very well. <v Mrs. Lumpkin>Oh, uh, something from, uh, something from my pension plan. <v Mrs. Lumpkin>And let's see.

<v Mrs. Lumpkin>That's July 28. <v Mrs. Lumpkin>See, this is August day. <v Mrs. Lumpkin>That's for you. <v Frank Lumpkin>You know what? <v Frank Lumpkin>I'm sorry. I'm just not you <v Frank Lumpkin>know, I just went to Wisconsin Steel this morning and we looked at the plant. <v Frank Lumpkin>You just think about the guys you worked with for 30 years or more. <v Frank Lumpkin>What happened to them and their family who weren't lucky enough to hold on. <v Jim Ylisela>Frank Lumpkin thought the steel mills would last forever. <v Jim Ylisela>Everyone did. <v Jim Ylisela>For years, Wisconsin Steel employed thousands on Chicago's southeast side. <v Jim Ylisela>Families in the area sent two and three generations to work in the mill. <v Jim Ylisela>Then on March 28, 1980, the unthinkable happened.

<v Jim Ylisela>Wisconsin Steel closed its gates forever. <v Frank Lumpkin>Well, I'm sitting there the clerk got a message, said call <v Frank Lumpkin>all the officials in this plant is closing. <v Frank Lumpkin>So Fleischer looked at me and I looked at him and, uh, we kept the comedy, you know, how <v Frank Lumpkin>in the world could this happen? You know? How could it be closing? <v Frank Lumpkin>Well, it went on for a week or two, and then they they have stopped the, uh, the checks. <v Frank Lumpkin>All the checks bounced. I said wait a minute, something is for real here. <v Jim Ylisela>That last paycheck would never be good. <v Jim Ylisela>Thirty four hundred workers were out on the street with no severance pay, no health <v Jim Ylisela>insurance, and no prospects. <v Jim Ylisela>But Frank Lumpkin was not about to give up. <v Jim Ylisela>Within two weeks, he and others had formed the Save Our Jobs Committee to fight for <v Jim Ylisela>justice for the workers of Wisconsin Steel. <v Frank Lumpkin>That justice delayed is justice denied. <v Frank Lumpkin>We thought that we were protected by some kind of a law, by

<v Frank Lumpkin>something that protected the workers when they was put out of a mill, and they pay and <v Frank Lumpkin>everything went down the drain, that somehow somebody was responsible for us. <v Frank Lumpkin>And we found out that that was not so. <v Frank Lumpkin>But there's no law to guarantee a worker gotta get paid.There's nothing that says <v Frank Lumpkin>that that plant close, you're going to get your money. <v Frank Lumpkin>You're going to get everything. We had we had to do it on our own. <v Jim Ylisela>Under Frank's leadership, the Save our Jobs committee held demonstrations at the plant in <v Jim Ylisela>downtown. They organized a food pantry for the families of the workers and demanded <v Jim Ylisela>justice from local, state, and national officials. <v Jim Ylisela>When Wisconsin Steel filed for bankruptcy, the Save Our Jobs committee went to court <v Jim Ylisela>to try to claim a piece of the settlement. <v Frank Lumpkin>So, I got up and I say, look, you owe me twenty two thousand dollars for my back <v Frank Lumpkin>pay and everything else, and I know that don't mean nothing here. <v Frank Lumpkin>He was talking about millions and other things, but that was all I had. <v Frank Lumpkin>And I think that we should have some consideration, the workers should have some

<v Frank Lumpkin>consideration. I want to know when the people of this country is going to be heard <v Frank Lumpkin>like the peoples throughout the world is being heard today. <v Frank Lumpkin>I wonder what the peoples in this country is going to band together and walk as one to <v Frank Lumpkin>the government of this, the head of the government of this country and say we demand <v Frank Lumpkin>a right to live. We demand a right for our children to have jobs. <v Frank Lumpkin>We demand that... <v Jim Ylisela>Frank Lumpkin was born in 1916, the son of Georgia sharecroppers. <v Jim Ylisela>At twenty three, he was lured north to Buffalo by the prospect of a better paying job in <v Jim Ylisela>steel mills. After serving time in the Merchant Marine, frank got married <v Jim Ylisela>and moved to Chicago, where he worked as a chipper at Wisconsin steel, cutting the <v Jim Ylisela>defects out of steel with a chisel. <v Frank Lumpkin>It was dreadful at the same time, it was glorious. And about 30 years in a week. I remember <v Frank Lumpkin>chipping here, in fact I was chipping over there right around this bend with <v Frank Lumpkin>hundreds of workers at this very spot, making their eight

<v Frank Lumpkin>hours chipping steel, rolling steel. There was mens up in the crane who <v Frank Lumpkin>was bringing steel in, getting it conditioned, taking it to other places <v Frank Lumpkin>so that other peoples could produce and make cars and make trucks and tractors <v Frank Lumpkin>and homes for the rest of the community. <v Frank Lumpkin>It was us, it was the mens, it was the people that made this thing work. <v Frank Lumpkin>You know, I got my payout at home. I sit on my porch and I watched my TV. <v Frank Lumpkin>Let the world go. <v Frank Lumpkin>But after you go through a catastrophe like this, you never again will say let the world <v Frank Lumpkin>go. Somebody come by and I help em. You in problem, we help. <v Frank Lumpkin>But after that, we begin to find that our lives were tied up with the rest of the world <v Frank Lumpkin>and that we wouldn't just a isolated bunch here. <v Jim Ylisela>In 1988, the workers won a settlement of fourteen point eight million dollars. <v Jim Ylisela>But the victory was bittersweet. <v Jim Ylisela>After 30 years on the job, Frank Lumpkin's share was only three thousand dollars. <v Jim Ylisela>And so the work continues. More support services for the workers who remain unemployed

<v Jim Ylisela>or in low paying jobs and more legal battles. <v Jim Ylisela>Frank Lumpkin claims the workers still have 60 million dollars coming in severance and <v Jim Ylisela>other benefits. <v Frank Lumpkin>I think that we had a just cause in Wisconsin Steel. <v Frank Lumpkin>I think it <v Frank Lumpkin>was injustice that happened that we was put out without pay. <v Frank Lumpkin>But it's legal, and so I think we have to differentiate what's legal and <v Frank Lumpkin>what's justice. And what happened to us, even though it was legal, wasn't <v Frank Lumpkin>justice. It had nothing to do with justice. <v G.H. Wang>[Music] The Chinese people need at least a social center to meet.

<v G.H. Wang>And also many businessmen need Chinatown as an anchor <v G.H. Wang>to do their business, to make their living, and, you know, to raise their children. <v Jim Ylisela>One reason Chinatown thrives today is G.H. <v Jim Ylisela>Wang. For years, he has nurtured the neighborhood's renaissance, attracting <v Jim Ylisela>investors and building affordable housing that makes people want to stay. <v Jim Ylisela>He began his work in 1960. <v G.H. Wang>Chinatown in those days were in a quite depressive mood. <v G.H. Wang>And there was no new concentration there was no what you call renovation <v G.H. Wang>or rehabilitation. <v G.H. Wang>And people who could afford were leaving Chinatown for better neighborhoods <v G.H. Wang>if they could find any. <v G.H. Wang>I think of housing because I think it is a principal ingredient <v G.H. Wang>for neighborhood revitalization, because you encourage people to <v G.H. Wang>invest money in the neighborhood and the way to do this is nonprofit <v G.H. Wang>housing. Why? Because the cost would be lower and more income family can

<v G.H. Wang>afford it. And that's the way to start. <v G.H. Wang>You said the Chinese are income poor, they cannot qualify for it, a big mortgage, <v G.H. Wang>but they are cash rich because they're very thrifty. <v G.H. Wang>So you put the two together, that's the way you start your housing. <v Jim Ylisela>G.H. was born in 1909 into an educated upper class family. <v Jim Ylisela>His father and grandfather were both Anglican preachers. <v Jim Ylisela>At 21, he entered the Foreign Service sailing to America to serve as vice <v Jim Ylisela>counsel in Chicago for the nationalist government. <v G.H. Wang>I am the very few remaining genuine Chinese Americans <v G.H. Wang>that lived through the imperial days of China. <v G.H. Wang>The Republican base of China. The warlord states of China. <v G.H. Wang>The nationalist revolutionary days of China. <v G.H. Wang>And the communist revolutionary days of China, as well as American <v G.H. Wang>Democratic dates and years. <v G.H. Wang>So I've got them all. [Laughter]

<v Jim Ylisela>G.H. stayed in Chicago until 1938 when he was appointed consul <v Jim Ylisela>general of New Orleans. <v Jim Ylisela>When the communists took over the Chinese mainland in 1949, G.H. <v Jim Ylisela>enrolled at Tulane University and prepared for a new career as a teacher. <v Jim Ylisela>Back in Chicago, he turned his attention to Chinatown's most pressing need, affordable <v Jim Ylisela>housing. <v G.H. Wang>Well, from that point on, I just started developing houses, and I think <v G.H. Wang>all together from 1960 to <v G.H. Wang>1976, I started close to 200 units. <v Jim Ylisela>These units were all geared for moderate income families, G.H. <v Jim Ylisela>also wanted to build low income housing for the neighborhood's elders. <v Jim Ylisela>Most communities shun low income housing. <v Jim Ylisela>But in Chinatown, G.H. Wang's high rise for seniors became a catalyst <v Jim Ylisela>for further development. <v G.H. Wang>The idea is to build neighborhood confidence. <v G.H. Wang>Once the neighborhood confidence is returned, then you don't <v G.H. Wang>have to worry about having a low income housing because they believe in the neighborhood,

<v G.H. Wang>they believe in the future of the neighborhood. <v G.H. Wang>[Music] <v G.H. Wang>When Chinese first came to the United States, they always <v G.H. Wang>thought the thing to do was to make some money and go home and enjoy life. <v G.H. Wang>But they never make that. <v G.H. Wang>Most of them stayed here. <v G.H. Wang>And when they have children, they say, my children should have Chinese education, <v G.H. Wang>be somebody in China. <v G.H. Wang>And you know, what happened the children came back and stayed here <v G.H. Wang>and became somebody here in the United States. <v G.H. Wang>So my purpose is this. <v G.H. Wang>Since America has given us this opportunity to make a better <v G.H. Wang>living than it is up to us to make <v G.H. Wang>a contribution to America. <v G.H. Wang>And this is a lifelong pursuit. <v G.H. Wang>You know, you cannot be done in one day or two days.

<v G.H. Wang>That's why I be America 60 years. <v G.H. Wang>That's what I've been doing for 60 years. <v Ruth Rothstein>Hello. <v Ruth Rothstein>Hi, Nancy, how are you? <v Ruth Rothstein>I was calling for Dr. Turner. <v Ruth Rothstein>Yes. No, no, I'll tell you what I wanted, and then you might want to speak with him. <v Ruth Rothstein>I want to come down and talk with him. <v Ruth Rothstein>I want to see how one taps into the five million dollar trauma allocation. <v Ruth Rothstein>I want to be first. I want a leg up. <v Ruth Rothstein>[Laughter] I want I want a leg up. <v Ruth Rothstein>No, nobody else has called you yet.

<v Jim Ylisela>From 1977 to 1990, Ruth Rothstein called the shots at Mount <v Jim Ylisela>Sinai Hospital. <v Jim Ylisela>At a time when many hospitals were shutting their doors, Ruth Rothstein saw to it that <v Jim Ylisela>Mt. Sinai thrived. <v Ruth Rothstein>I think that Mount Sinai survives because it does pursue its <v Ruth Rothstein>mission, because it does involve itself with the community <v Ruth Rothstein>that it has not isolated itself behind its own four walls. <v Jim Ylisela>Outside Mount Sinai's walls is a community in need, Lawndale <v Jim Ylisela>has long been one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods marked by rundown housing <v Jim Ylisela>and high unemployment. For many residents, health care is a luxury they cannot <v Jim Ylisela>afford. But for Ruth Rothstein, Mount Sinai's mission has never <v Jim Ylisela>changed. <v Ruth Rothstein>Originally, the hospital was here and built because there <v Ruth Rothstein>was a Jewish community here.

<v Ruth Rothstein>And when that Jewish community left, this hospital could easily <v Ruth Rothstein>have abandoned the community and moved on with <v Ruth Rothstein>its original constituency, and it didn't. <v Ruth Rothstein>We continue to put back into <v Ruth Rothstein>a community, even though it's no longer Jewish. <v Ruth Rothstein>The kinds of things we would have wanted for our own people. <v Jim Ylisela>Ruth Rothstein knows what it means to be poor. <v Jim Ylisela>Born in Brownsville, a Jewish ghetto in Brooklyn. <v Jim Ylisela>She grew up in an activist household. <v Ruth Rothstein>My father was a shoe worker and he helped to organize <v Ruth Rothstein>the boot and shoe workers union. <v Ruth Rothstein>If there was a strike, we were a part of it. <v Ruth Rothstein>We knew what it meant. We knew why we didn't have bread, and we knew why <v Ruth Rothstein>we didn't have money, and we understood. <v Ruth Rothstein>So that my whole background and the growing up process was to <v Ruth Rothstein>deal with social issues. <v Jim Ylisela>At 20. Ruth left New York to pursue a career as a labor organizer.

<v Jim Ylisela>In Cleveland, she worked for the United Electrical Workers. <v Jim Ylisela>In Chicago, she helped expose racial discrimination at a meatpacking plant. <v Jim Ylisela>Later, Ruth worked as a lab technician before applying at a community center affiliated <v Jim Ylisela>with Mount Sinai. With her labor background, she seemed a natural choice for <v Jim Ylisela>the job. <v Ruth Rothstein>I interviewed, and they didn't hire me, because I was a woman <v Ruth Rothstein>and because I didn't have a master's degree. They weren't interested. <v Ruth Rothstein>But they offered me a secretarial job and I said, that <v Ruth Rothstein>would be wonderful. There's only one problem, I can't type. <v Jim Ylisela>They did offer Ruth a job in the admitting office where she began her swift rise to the <v Jim Ylisela>presidency. By the early 70s, she succeeded in averting Mount <v Jim Ylisela>Sinai's financial collapse with a philosophy that extended the hospital's role <v Jim Ylisela>in the community. <v Ruth Rothstein>Most hospitals have seen themselves merely as the deliverer or the provider <v Ruth Rothstein>of health care.

<v Ruth Rothstein>We extended that mission, or we extended that concept <v Ruth Rothstein>to mean that you not only provide health <v Ruth Rothstein>care, you also look at the total needs of the community <v Ruth Rothstein>and the needs in this community are very extreme. <v Jim Ylisela>Ruth Rothstein has never stopped being an organizer. <v Jim Ylisela>Under her guidance, Mount Sinai joined forces with Ryerson's steel company and <v Jim Ylisela>local community groups to tear down deteriorated buildings and rehab others. <v Jim Ylisela>But even as Mount Sinai reaches beyond its traditional role, Ruth continues <v Jim Ylisela>to work for the rights of the poor and the disadvantaged, insisting that her hospital <v Jim Ylisela>provide the best possible care to those who need it most. <v Ruth Rothstein>Health care is a right, and it's a right for every citizen of this country. <v Ruth Rothstein>And it's not a privilege. <v Ruth Rothstein>And what always troubles me is that the United States of America and <v Ruth Rothstein>South Africa are the only two countries in the civilized world that doesn't <v Ruth Rothstein>have a health care plan that takes care of all of its citizens.

<v Ruth Rothstein>And that indeed is a tragedy a total tragedy. <v Jim Ylisela>[Singing] Delois Barrett Campbell <v Jim Ylisela>has long been one of the shining lights of gospel music. <v Jim Ylisela>Born and raised on Chicago's southside, Delois, and her sisters, Billie and <v Jim Ylisela>Rodessa,The Barrett Sisters, are one of the world's leading gospel groups. <v Jim Ylisela>[Singing] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>We love to sing. We started when just little young girls harmonizing

<v Delois Barrett Campbell>in my home, my daddy's home. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>We're full blooded sisters. We're seventh, eighth and ninth children. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>I'm the oldest of the three. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>We've been singing for, I'll claim, 40 years <v Delois Barrett Campbell>with them. [Singing] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>We're, <v Delois Barrett Campbell>from a old religious family, our background is very religious. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>My daddy was a deacon in the Baptist Church and my mother was a missionary. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>So we were steered to this to be with the Lord. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>My daddy was a strict old man. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>We didn't have any, uh, uh, Lionel Hamilton, any of those those records <v Delois Barrett Campbell>in the home. We had strictly church music in our home. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>When I was in high school, my voice was discovered by one of the teachers, <v Delois Barrett Campbell>and I ended up singing for our grammar school graduation.

<v Delois Barrett Campbell>I actually graduated from high school and went immediately on the road <v Delois Barrett Campbell>with the Roberta Martin singers. We would go and stay, stay at one church <v Delois Barrett Campbell>for maybe one or two weeks. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>Because we wasn't actually singing concerts, we were doing revivals, which <v Delois Barrett Campbell>meant that we had a minister to come in, and he would preach and we would do the singing. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>[Singing] <v Jim Ylisela>In 1962, Delois left the Roberta Martin singers and began performing with her <v Jim Ylisela>sisters. By the late 60s, the trio had released many record albums. <v Jim Ylisela>Their popularity soared. [Singing] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>Most of the churches didn't more than gospel singers in there gospel singing because they <v Delois Barrett Campbell>felt it was so closely to the rock and roll or to blues.

<v Delois Barrett Campbell>They didn't like the hand clapping. They didn't like the patting of the feet. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>So therefore, they didn't want to have any parts of it. [Singing, followed by applause] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>Well, now they love it. <v Jim Ylisela>Delois lives on South Indiana Avenue <v Jim Ylisela>in a neighborhood that has been home to Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington, <v Jim Ylisela>and Thomas A. Dorsey. It is also home to her sister, Billie, who lives next door <v Jim Ylisela>as well as Rodessa and Delois' daughters. <v Jim Ylisela>And it is a neighborhood where, for many, the church is the source of hope, and <v Jim Ylisela>gospel music is the messenger. <v Jim Ylisela>[Singing] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>When I'm up singing, I'm really trying to communicate to the audience.

<v Delois Barrett Campbell>I'm trying to tell them a story. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>I'm trying to give them something to think about, something that they can feed on <v Delois Barrett Campbell>something that they can live. Let them know that there's a brighter day. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>Even though it's dark now, but there is a brighter day yet to come. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>[Singing] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>So many minds are confused because of dope, <v Delois Barrett Campbell>because of alcohol. It's raging. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>Our kids are going astray. I had a son to die from an overdose of dope <v Delois Barrett Campbell>because he was he was out in the world. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>He was 23 years old. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>And, uh, he had everything to live for, <v Delois Barrett Campbell>but he preferred going that way. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>And I was the last to know that he was actually on dope. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>And I regret it very much that I didn't get a chance to really minister to him, <v Delois Barrett Campbell>even though I thought I did quite a good job, but I see I didn't do as well as I thought.

<v Delois Barrett Campbell>His dad was a minister, still is a minister. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>But when we got to that boy, he was dead and had been dead for about seven hours. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>[Singing] <v Delois Barrett Campbell>We all in our 60s and I, uh, believe that our time is <v Delois Barrett Campbell>winding up. We may see a few more years, or we may see none, I don't know. <v Delois Barrett Campbell>I told the people when I was in Europe last year that I will come to Europe <v Delois Barrett Campbell>as long as I can walk.

<v Delois Barrett Campbell>So maybe I'll be singing as long as I can get <v Delois Barrett Campbell>a tune out, I don't know. <v Jim Ylisela>Walter Piotrowski has kept an eye on the meat packing industry for more than 50 years. <v Jim Ylisela>As a labor leader and negotiator, Walter fought for and won many of the changes <v Jim Ylisela>that transformed the meat packing plant into a safe, decent place to work.

<v Walter Piotrowski>It's a day and night difference between the department of yesterday and the department of <v Walter Piotrowski>today. To <v Walter Piotrowski>walk through the door of the plant today, well-painted, <v Walter Piotrowski>they're clean, the floors are spick and span. <v Walter Piotrowski>The dishing....it's a pleasure. <v Jim Ylisela>Walter grew up with the stockyards. <v Jim Ylisela>To make extra money, he helped his father peddle meat out of a horse drawn wagon. <v Jim Ylisela>In 1929, at the age of 18, Walter went to work in the stockyards. <v Jim Ylisela>He earned 20 cents an hour. <v Jim Ylisela>In those days, the hog butcher of the world lived up to its billing. <v Jim Ylisela>In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair described the scene inside the plants as a very <v Jim Ylisela>river of death.

<v Jim Ylisela>As the wheel turned, a hog was suddenly jerked off its feet and borne aloft. <v Jim Ylisela>The uproar was appalling, perilous to the eardrums. <v Jim Ylisela>One felt that there was too much sound for the room to hold. <v Jim Ylisela>The stockyards employed thousands who lived in the neighborhood, but the plant owners <v Jim Ylisela>recruited more workers from Central and Eastern Europe to keep their labor pool high <v Jim Ylisela>and wages low. At one time, Walter's parents, both Polish immigrants, <v Jim Ylisela>worked long hours in meatpacking plants. <v Walter Piotrowski>It's sad to think about <v Walter Piotrowski>what the people had to endure when <v Walter Piotrowski>they were promised good jobs, when they left <v Walter Piotrowski>their homeland in Poland, other foreign lands, <v Walter Piotrowski>and coming to America. <v Walter Piotrowski>They surely worked rather hard to bring <v Walter Piotrowski>about for us what we have today.

<v Jim Ylisela>Labor unions weren't very popular in those days, but when the Congress of industrial <v Jim Ylisela>organizations sent representatives to the meatpacking plants, Walter was one of the <v Jim Ylisela>first to take up the call for higher wages and better working conditions. <v Walter Piotrowski>In the early days, they couldn't find time to <v Walter Piotrowski>make it comfortable for peopel to do the job <v Walter Piotrowski>and enjoy their work. <v Jim Ylisela>During his 15 minute lunch breaks, Walter recruited his fellow workers for the union. <v Jim Ylisela>He rose to president of Local 25 of the United Packinghouse Workers and <v Jim Ylisela>later served as secretary treasurer of the Beef Boner's and Sausage Makers Local <v Jim Ylisela>until his retirement in 1987. <v Unknown>Walter Piotrowski and your retirement, may there always be be a warm wind uh, blowing to your <v Unknown>back. Thank you for all you've given us. <v Jim Ylisela>The problems of the 20s are not the problems of the 90s. <v Jim Ylisela>Workers, labor, and clean well lighted plants, but technology threatens safety and

<v Jim Ylisela>job security. As usual, labor and management want more from each other, <v Jim Ylisela>and each has proven a stubborn adversary. <v Walter Piotrowski>It's a sad thing to watch an operation and then for <v Walter Piotrowski>the leader to be remain stubborn - to demand only for himself rather than to try to <v Walter Piotrowski>work it out with both sides. <v Walter Piotrowski>Some places the unions get so darn strong <v Walter Piotrowski>that they want it their way and only one way. <v Walter Piotrowski>They don't want to bend. <v Walter Piotrowski>And that's what I was known for, both sides sitting <v Walter Piotrowski>down and working it out. <v Jim Ylisela>Maria Enriquez de Allen's life is filled with her art.

<v Jim Ylisela>In her small Pilsen apartment, she spends her days working in the tradition of many <v Jim Ylisela>Mexican artists, creating beautiful objects out of materials other people <v Jim Ylisela>have thrown away. [Music] <v Maria Enriquez de Allen>[Speaking Spanish] <v Translator>My family had many artists, especially the women, when I was seven, my mother taught me <v Translator>to crochet and to make paper flowers. <v Translator>But I didn't have much time for it because I had to help my parents with the farmwork. <v Jim Ylisela>Maria's family's ranch was an Allende, Mexico, about 50 miles south <v Jim Ylisela>of the Rio Grande. <v Maria Enriquez de Allen>[Speaking Spanish]

<v Translator>I used to like making goats from clay I found on the farm. <v Translator>I'd look for snail shells on the ground and those would be the tails for my goats, and <v Translator>I'd use mesquite needles to make the horns. <v Maria Enriquez de Allen> [Speaking Spanish]. <v Translator>This <v Translator>cactus I made many years ago. <v Translator>It's made from eggshells and the blossoms are from a plant in my garden. <v Translator>The eagle I've made from some cardboard covered in cloth. <v Translator>The same as the snake. <v Jim Ylisela>At 18, Maria became a schoolteacher and at 23, she married Manuel Castillo. <v Jim Ylisela>17 years later, Manuel was accidentally killed by an electrical shock. <v Jim Ylisela>And Maria was left to support their seven children. <v Jim Ylisela>She brought in extra money by making paper flowers. <v Maria Enriquez de Allen>[Speaking Spanish]. <v Translator>Even though I worked in the school the rest of my day, I worked at home with my seven <v Translator>children. The oldest was 14 and the youngest was 14 months. <v Translator>They were my company. They were my happiness.

<v Translator>And they gave me the inspiration to work in that way. <v Jim Ylisela>Maria's children grew up and moved to the United States. <v Jim Ylisela>She soon followed them first to Texas and then in 1963 to <v Jim Ylisela>Chicago, where she settled in the Pilsen neighborhood. <v Jim Ylisela>[Music] <v Jim Ylisela>In Pilsen, Maria went to work for the Halsted Urban Progress Center, teaching <v Jim Ylisela>art to children and helping their parents adjust to American life. <v Jim Ylisela>In 1969, she married photographer Harold Allen, who was her son's teacher <v Jim Ylisela>at the Art Institute. They met when Mario took Maria to the school for a <v Jim Ylisela>student exhibit. <v Maria Enriquez de Allen>[Speaking Spanish]. <v Translator>The gentleman turned around suddenly and came to meet me. <v Maria Enriquez de Allen>Allo, Maria. Allo. You talk English? No sir. Me no talk Spanish. OK.

<v Harold Allen>We found out immediately we had no <v Harold Allen>common language. <v Harold Allen>But, uh, we enjoyed, uh, trying to talk anyway. <v Maria Enriquez de Allen>[Speaking Spanish]. <v Translator>At my age and since I don't go out a lot, art is the way I entertain myself. <v Translator>I feel very peaceful when I'm working. <v Translator>I don't worry about Harold. <v Translator>I don't worry about my children. <v Translator>But instead I concentrate on what I'm doing and that I enjoy <v Translator>very much. <v Monsignor John Egan>Lord have mercy.

<v Crowd response>Lord have mercy. <v Monsignor John Egan>May almighty God, have mercy on us. <v Monsignor John Egan>Forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life. <v Crowd response>Amen. <v Monsignor John Egan>Let us pray. <v Speaker>Civil disobedience in Selma, Alabama. <v Monsignor John Egan>Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. <v Monsignor John Egan>One God, forever and ever. <v Speaker>We've gone too far now to turn back. <v Monsignor John Egan>Holy, holy Holy Lord. <v Monsignor John Egan>God of power and might. <v Monsignor John Egan>Heaven and earth are full of your glory. <v Monsignor John Egan>Hosanna in the highest. [Singing] <v Monsignor John Egan>We are a nation that must be concerned about the poor about the underdog, about the <v Monsignor John Egan>the underprivileged. <v Jim Ylisela>For Monsignor John Egan, faith and social action have always been inseparable. <v Monsignor John Egan>Well. <v Peggy Roach>Good morning. <v Monsignor John Egan>Good morning. <v Peggy Roach>How are you? <v Monsignor John Egan>Judge [inaudible]. <v Jim Ylisela>In his 48 years as a priest, he has never been content to stay <v Jim Ylisela>behind the scenes. <v Jim Ylisela>Though occasionally at odds with his church or at great personal risk, Father Jack, <v Jim Ylisela>aided by his longtime assistant Peggy Roach, has spent much of his life on the front

<v Jim Ylisela>lines fighting for justice. <v Monsignor John Egan>When Saul Alinsky said, Where were your feet today? <v Monsignor John Egan>He was really asking if you're taking care of yourself or you're taking care of other <v Monsignor John Egan>people? Were you out on the streets? Were you on a picket line with people who are <v Monsignor John Egan>suffering injustice? What do you are doing about the people who are hungry in this town <v Monsignor John Egan>or the people who are homeless or unemployed? <v Jim Ylisela>Monsignor Egan's feet have taken him from civil rights marches in Selma to the <v Jim Ylisela>neighborhoods of Chicago, whether fighting for decent, affordable housing for members <v Jim Ylisela>of his West Side parish or combating race discrimination and prejudice, Father <v Jim Ylisela>Jack has tackled some of the city's toughest social problems. <v Monsignor John Egan>The problems in Chicago were serious. <v Monsignor John Egan>They were serious. I mean, you had the restrictive covenants where people, uh, black <v Monsignor John Egan>people, could not move into certain neighborhoods and, uh, yeah, <v Monsignor John Egan>they were restricted and practically all of Chicago had restrict covenants. <v Monsignor John Egan>And thank God that they were eliminated, but that didn't eliminate the racism. <v Monsignor John Egan>The racism is still in Chicago.

<v Monsignor John Egan>There's no question about it. Racism on many, many levels. <v Monsignor John Egan>It isn't as overt, uh, it's more covert. <v Monsignor John Egan>But the problems which are facing a society which is trying to cope, uh, <v Monsignor John Egan>with the question of education, of health, the welfare, unemployment, homelessness, <v Monsignor John Egan>hunger, uh, they are far more serious than they were in the in <v Monsignor John Egan>the 60s. <v Jim Ylisela>The son of Irish immigrants, John Egan, was born in 1917 and <v Jim Ylisela>grew up in the Ravenswood neighborhood. <v Jim Ylisela>As a young boy, he saw injustice all around him. <v Monsignor John Egan>During the Depression days, I saw so much suffering around by the people <v Monsignor John Egan>who were unemployed. <v Monsignor John Egan>And, uh, I lived on the north side of Chicago. <v Monsignor John Egan>I was able to experience a lot of suffering on the part of people. <v Monsignor John Egan>And I guess I asked myself the question, how can I best help? <v Monsignor John Egan>And as we talked, I realized that that might tie in with the work that <v Monsignor John Egan>Andy MacKenna and Phil Delaney...

<v Jim Ylisela>Father Egan's activism wasn't always popular with the church. <v Jim Ylisela>In 1969, Archbishop John Cardinal Codie banished Egan to Notre Dame. <v Jim Ylisela>Thirteen years later, Egan was invited back by Cardinal Joseph Bernadine and <v Jim Ylisela>picked up where he had left off. <v Monsignor John Egan>[Phone ringing] Hello. <v Caller>Good morning, Jack. <v Monsignor John Egan>Hello, John. How are you? Fine, thank you. <v Jim Ylisela>From his post at DePaul University, Father Jack continues to do what he has always <v Jim Ylisela>done, challenging religion's role in solving the problems of urban America. <v Monsignor John Egan>The need for a priest at any time, and maybe particularly today, is more <v Monsignor John Egan>than at any time in my my 47 years as a priest, because I <v Monsignor John Egan>always feel you just have to knock on any door. <v Monsignor John Egan>And, uh, uh, every every phone call <v Monsignor John Egan>is an opportunity for service. <v Monsignor John Egan>Everybody you meet on the street. <v Monsignor John Egan>And so there's I there's just there isn't any retirement and I don't know when..you just <v Monsignor John Egan>don't that God will know when you've done enough and then he'll call you and and <v Monsignor John Egan>then you enjoy the rest of eternity.

<v Monsignor John Egan>I hope. <v Margot McMahon>You ever had a portrait made of, you? <v Hildur Lindquist>Never, this is the first time. <v Hildur Lindquist>[laughter]. <v Margot McMahon>With all the painters in your family, no one's painted you? <v Hildur Lindquist>[Laughter] No. <v Hildur Lindquist>Have <v Hildur Lindquist>you heard any more from your sister? <v Unknown>Yeah, I heard [inaudible] yesterday. <v Unknown>She's very sick. <v Hildur Lindquist>That's just like my two sisters. <v Hildur Lindquist>They're both very strong. <v Unknown>Yeah.

<v Hildur Lindquist>But they are getting along fine. <v Hildur Lindquist>They're OK. So I hope everything will turn out all right. <v Unknown>I hope so. <v Hildur Lindquist>I really didn't want to come to America, because I have it pretty good <v Hildur Lindquist>at home, and I love my family. <v Hildur Lindquist>And I was the only one that was going to break up the family. <v Hildur Lindquist>And no one wanted to go with me [laughter], but <v Hildur Lindquist>my boyfriend, he was here for six years, asked me to <v Hildur Lindquist>marry him and I just couldn't [laughter] couldn't lead him on, but <v Hildur Lindquist>the third time when he came, I said, OK. <v Jim Ylisela> Hildur Lindquist has never sat in at City Hall <v Jim Ylisela>or fought a major corporation. <v Jim Ylisela>She is a housewife and mother. <v Jim Ylisela>One of the truly unsung heroes. <v Hildur Lindquist>When we came 1931. <v Hildur Lindquist>The depression was really bad. <v Hildur Lindquist>And what we had in the bank here, that was

<v Hildur Lindquist>lost. The bank closed. <v Hildur Lindquist>So he came home and told me one day he was white and his face. <v Hildur Lindquist>And I said, what happened? <v Hildur Lindquist>And, uh, his his and he said we <v Hildur Lindquist>lost our money, and I don't think we're going to get it back. <v Hildur Lindquist>Oh, I said, my gosh. I said, was it only that? <v Hildur Lindquist>I said I thought somebody had died in Sweden or was sick and <v Hildur Lindquist>then I heard the rest of my life. <v Hildur Lindquist>So when something come up. <v Hildur Lindquist>Then he says all the time. <v Hildur Lindquist>Oh, was it only that? <v Jim Ylisela>Hildur Lindquist came to America when the nation was down on its luck with <v Jim Ylisela>little more than each other. Hildur and her husband, Valdemar, found a small apartment <v Jim Ylisela>on the north side of Chicago. <v Hildur Lindquist>We had only one room and the little little kitchen

<v Hildur Lindquist>and all his friends and my brother in law, they live <v Hildur Lindquist>across the hall. <v Hildur Lindquist>So this was handy that I came there so I could cook for him. <v Hildur Lindquist>[Laughter] So I had the lot of them coming in and eat. <v Hildur Lindquist>So I had full job. <v Hildur Lindquist>I remember the first Christmas Eve I was here, and I <v Hildur Lindquist>was so used to having Christmas eve at home and the whole family <v Hildur Lindquist>together. <v Hildur Lindquist>And I said to my husband, I'm not going to sit just for ourself <v Hildur Lindquist>Christmas Eve. <v Hildur Lindquist>So we asked all our friends to come over in our little apartment. <v Hildur Lindquist>And they said, they'd never had such a nice Christmas they thought they were <v Hildur Lindquist>never going to go any place and so, is it really Christmas

<v Hildur Lindquist>Eve. That first Christmas I was here. <v Jim Ylisela>Times got better, and in 1941, the Lindquists bought a home on Ashland Avenue <v Jim Ylisela>in the Andersonville neighborhood. <v Jim Ylisela>There were good schools and lots of Swedish friends nearby. <v Hildur Lindquist>I like Hendersonville, and I don't think I ever want to move away from <v Hildur Lindquist>here. I like my house. <v Hildur Lindquist>It's a lot of work lately because I'm getting old. <v Hildur Lindquist>[Laughter] But I think I keep it. <v Hildur Lindquist>Don't go to the home or anything. <v Hildur Lindquist>I've been thinking about it. <v Hildur Lindquist>But the neighborhood is friendly and nice. <v Hildur Lindquist>Sometimes I miss Sweden. <v Hildur Lindquist>But, uh, I've been here too long. <v Hildur Lindquist>I've been here fifty nine years now. <v Hildur Lindquist>And I have my family here. <v Hildur Lindquist>I could never leave my family, I know that. <v Unknown>You're a special class.

<v Unknown>Ah, you take a cookie. <v Unknown>Have some cookies. <v Unknown>They're going to take a class, they're gonna take the whole. <v Unknown>You gotta let me taste one of your cookies. <v Hildur Lindquist>When I was in Sweden as a little girl. <v Hildur Lindquist>We couldn't talk when we were eating. <v Hildur Lindquist>And we had to pray, when we sat down the table and we had <v Hildur Lindquist>to pray when we left the table. [Swedish prayer] <v Hildur Lindquist>God that love his children. <v Hildur Lindquist>Whatever they go in this world, please take care of us. <v Hildur Lindquist>When they went from bed and they're going to sleep, they ask God <v Hildur Lindquist>to look over them. [Crowd murmuring, music] <v Narrator>Partial funding for this program was provided by the John D.

<v Narrator>and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a catalyst for change. <v Speaker>Meet a market.

<v Speaker>Around the corner, that rising barricade tells you what Delta manufacturing makes. <v Speaker>Crash barriers to protect embassies and airports. <v Speaker>Delta installs these barriers worldwide. <v Speaker>Delta's barricades already had been delivered to the U.S. <v Speaker>Marine barracks in Beirut. And were in the basement ready to be installed before the <v Speaker>terrorist attack that killed 241 Marines there in 1983. <v Speaker>Down the block, high fashion for bikers answer products, <v Speaker>chartreuse pantaloons and much more for the motorcycle crowd. <v Speaker>Answers ads flood the biker magazines.