2001 in Review

By: Kimiyo NakaJan. 8 The Chicago Transit Authority board approves a $100.4 million plan to buy as many as 230 new air-conditioned, articulated buses to move more passengers on busy lakefront routes in 2003.

Jan. 18 Responding to a National Enquirer story, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. admits he had an extramarital affair and fathered a child with Karin Stanford, a 39-year-old former senior aide in the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s Washington office. Jackson says he will spend some time away from the public arena. “I have asked God … to forgive me,” he says in a press release. The Rev. James T. Meeks, pastor of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago and executive vice president of Rainbow/PUSH, suggests the disclosures were meant to undermine Jackson’s participation in a Florida rally protesting the election of George W. Bush. Three days later, Jackson decides to return to work. “Someone said a saint is just a sinner who got back up again,” Jackson says, according to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Jan. 20 Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds leaves federal prison after being pardoned by out-going President Bill Clinton. Reynolds served 42 months of the 78-month sentence he received in 1997 for bank fraud, wire fraud, making false statements and federal election fraud. When asked if he got a fair trial, Reynolds tells the Reporter, “Nothing could have been further from the truth.” This was Reynolds’ second prison sentence. In 1995, he was sentenced to five years in state prison for having sexual relations with an underage campaign worker and trying to cover it up. Reynolds takes a job as executive director of the Hope Community Development Corp. at Salem Baptist Church and works as resident scholar for criminal justice issues at Rainbow/PUSH.

Feb. 4 The Sun-Times reports that family members, friends or associates of Rev. Jackson have repeatedly made business deals with corporations after he has pressured them to diversify. For example, Jackson “blessed” the merger of communications firms SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech, reversing his original position, after Ameritech gave a cellular business contract to Jackson’s friend Chester Davenport.

Feb. 8 Cook County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Porter declares a hung jury in the first-degree murder trial of Jonathan Tolliver, an African American 19-year-old and alleged gang member charged with murdering Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale in 1998. Sam Shipp, the only black man on the jury of six men and six women, was the lone juror refusing to convict Tolliver. Shipp later tells the Reporter, “If I had seen evidence that [Tolliver] had done the shooting, I would have voted him guilty. I would not hesitate.”

March 20 The Cook County Board abandons a $212 million plan to build a new traffic court on the West Side that residents claim would have displaced 200 to 300 families. The board decides to keep traffic court in the downtown Daley Center, its temporary location since January.

April 3 Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, a Republican, wins re-election against her Democratic opponent, Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno. Loren-Maltese, the wife of late mob bookkeeper Frank Maltese, has been leading the working-class western suburb since 1992. Moreno believed the town’s Latino population, now at 78 percent, would help him overthrow Loren-Maltese. U.S. Justice Department observers guaranteed that Cicero’s new Hispanic voters received fair treatment.

April 8 Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass calls Rev. Jackson the “King of Beers.” In 1995, Jackson asked his friend Ron Burkle to help his sons get a “lucrative” Budweiser distributorship on the North and Northwest sides of Chicago, reports the Tribune. A year later, Yusef Jackson, Jesse Jackson’s son, met with Budweiser Brands Vice President August A. Busch IV, a friend of Burkle’s. And in 1998 Yusef Jackson became the majority owner of the River North distributorship. Rev. Jackson, who in the 1980s charged Anheuser-Busch with racial discrimination and led a national boycott against the firm, denies involvement in the deal.

April 27 Asian Americans of various ethnicities in the North Side’s West Rogers Park neighborhood are seeking to create the first Asian seat in the Illinois General Assembly during this year’s remap, the Chicago Reader reports. In the past three decades, West Devon Avenue, one of the area’s main thoroughfares, has evolved from a predominantly Jewish neighborhood into a diverse community. But running an Asian candidate is a problem because Asians don’t share “a common language, religion, or culture, and ancient enmities divide them,” reports the Reader. Asians are 3 percent of the city’s population but 23 percent in West Rogers Park, according to the article.

April 28 U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez, a Democrat from Chicago’s Northwest Side, is arrested along with hundreds of others for trespassing on the U.S. Navy’s Camp Garcia in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The congressman, who is Puerto Rican, calls it “civil disobedience,” and demands that the 60-year-old bombing range be closed and not used for military exercises that endanger area residents and the environment.

May 2 The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of The Faith Community of St. Sabina, accuses the Southside Catholic Conference of racism after its board voted 11-9 to reject the membership application of the St. Sabina Academy elementary school. Most of the athletic league’s current members are predominantly white schools from the South Side and suburbs, while St. Sabina, in Auburn-Gresham on the South Side, is all black. Board directors say the decision was based on security concerns for visiting children, coaches and parents.

May 7 The City of Chicago reaches an $18 million out-of-court settlement with the family of LaTanya Haggerty, a black woman shot to death in 1999 by a Chicago police officer. The deal, the largest ever of its kind, came on the eve of the trial in a wrongful death suit filed by the family. Haggerty’s death sparked many community protests calling for Chicago Police Department reform.

May 11 Despite his criminal record and several court battles, Donald C. Luster, a black associate Baptist minister, is sworn in as mayor of Dixmoor, a predominantly black south suburb. Luster defeated his white opponent, Brad Carpenter, by one vote on April 1. But Carpenter and Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine challenged the victory, arguing Luster was ineligible to run because he was on probation from a 1991 robbery conviction and failed to meet Dixmoor’s residency requirement. Two Cook County judges ruled in Luster’s favor. “We will restore the luster of a once-vibrant village,” Luster promises.

May 15 Fifteen mothers from the Southwest Side’s Little Village neighborhood, which is predominantly Latino, launch a hunger strike. They ask the Chicago Public Schools to build the new community high school promised in 1998 by schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas.

May 23 After deliberating for 51¼2 hours, the jury in Tolliver’s retrial finds him guilty of murdering Ceriale. The highly publicized trial began May 2 and ended three weeks later. On July 20, Porter imposes the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison because of Tolliver’s gang association.

June 10 The Field Museum decides to return a 26-foot totem pole to descendants of its original Native American owners in Cape Fox, Alaska. The pole was taken without permission during a 1899 expedition. The museum agreed to give the pole back to the Tlingit tribe in compliance with the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires that federally funded institutions return Native American artifacts. Richard Shields, a Tlingit clan leader, tells the Tribune: “It’s like when one of your family members has been gone for a long, long time, and he has finally decided to come home.”

June 18 Jacqueline Jackson, Rev. Jackson’s wife, is arrested for trespassing at the U.S. Navy’s firing range in Vieques. Along with other protesters, she demands an immediate halt to the Navy’s bombing campaign. A scheduled bombing exercise gets delayed for six hours, and protesters claim victory. Jackson refuses to pay $3,000 in bail and is sentenced to 10 days in a federal jail. Her husband tells the Tribune her sentence is “excessive” and “infringes on her 1st Amendment rights.”

June 20 Southside Catholic Conference board members vote unanimously to accept St. Sabina Academy’s application. The second round of voting was prompted, in part, by criticism of the board’s initial rejection. Cardinal Francis E. George, leader of 2.3 million Roman Catholics in Cook and Lake Counties, intervened, making it possible for directors to reach the unanimous decision, according to League Chairman Hank Lenzen. But St. Sabina’s Pfleger decides the school will not join the league unless policies are written to prevent unwarranted forfeitures and racial taunts. Lenzen later accuses St. Sabina of “playing the race card,” according to the Tribune. St. Sabina later agrees to join the league.

June 27 Michael Scott, an African American and chairman of the Chicago Park District board for the last two years, is elected president of the Chicago Board of Education. Three days later, the board appoints a new chief executive officer, Arne Duncan, formerly chief of staff for departed schools chief Vallas. Mayor Richard M. Daley tapped Duncan and Scott after apparent dissatisfaction with the pace of school reform under Vallas and former board President Gery Chico. Some African American leaders, including Rev. Jackson, question whether Duncan has enough experience for the job.

June 28 Cardinal George says he may support proposals to reform property taxes. They include passing a law requiring that a quarter of any new developments in Chicago be made into affordable housing. Noting an ongoing construction boom and the Chicago Housing Authority’s plan to demolish its high-rises, George says the public housing high rises built in the 1950s for a growing black population resulted in today’s urban segregation. The city, he says, should take this opportunity to fix past “mistakes.”

June 30 A new Green Line elevated train station opens at 3630 W. Lake St. with promises to give “easy, affordable access to the East Garfield Park community directly to the north, and to the Park District’s Gold Dome Field House to the south,” according to a CTA press release. The $7 million project included preserving, renovating and relocating the 108-year-old structure once at 3400 W. Homan Ave.

July 2 Cook County Criminal Court Judge Joseph Urso sentences Patrick Sykes to 120 years in prison for four counts of rape, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of attempted murder stemming from the assault of “Girl X.” In 1997, the 9-year-old girl was raped, choked and poisoned with roach spray in a stairwell of the Cabrini-Green public housing development. The girl has been almost entirely paralyzed, blind and unable to speak since the attack.

July 8 Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell writes that she was taunted with racial slurs after leaving a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Mitchell writes that she was about to give money to black drummers outside the ballpark when a crowd of white men began chanting “Aunt Jemima” and were “soon joined by the drummers.” Racism is about “disrespect,” she writes.

July 12 Long known for battling racism, 3rd Ward Alderman Dorothy Tillman draws criticism in the wake of a discrimination lawsuit. Two white waiters, Ahmet Gundogdu and Michael Otte, allege the Palmer House Hilton removed them from working Tillman’s banquet last October after her staff asked for black waiters. According to the suit, the 11-year veteran waiters were told to work at another event or leave for the day. They seek $100,000 in damages. Tillman, who is not a defendant, tells the Sun-Times: “It is not personal against anybody. I am just pro-my people.”

July 16 Alderman Thomas W. Murphy, whose 18th Ward on the South Side is 85 percent black, announces that he will give up efforts to join the 19-member Black Caucus. Murphy says Black Caucus Chairman Ed H. Smith, 28th Ward alderman, said he could not join the caucus because he’s white. He was welcomed to attend the caucus’ remap meetings, he says. “They missed a great opportunity to move forward in racial relations in Chicago,” Murphy says. “It’s ironic—very ironic—because they’ve been in this position in the past themselves.” Mayor Daley lambastes black aldermen at a press conference: “Everybody should be able to represent anyone and speak on their behalf. You cannot say, if someone is elected, they cannot speak on behalf of a constituent.”

July 15-17 Mexican President Vicente Fox comes to Chicago. Fox discusses immigration and trade affairs with Mayor Daley, Gov. George H. Ryan and business leaders. He also addresses a crowd of thousands in Harrison Park on the Southwest Side. Some leaders of the city’s Mexican community, whose population grew 50 percent since 1990, say they are now anxious to see the results of his promises to help Mexicans on both sides of the border.

Aug. 20 The Chicago Board of Education decides to put $5 million aside for construction of a new high school in Little Village. The board also decides to spend another $5 million on a new school in neighboring Pilsen, also a largely Hispanic neighborhood. The projects are part of a $525 million plan for the 2002 fiscal year. Residents of Little Village declare victory. Construction dates are still pending.

Aug. 21 The Illinois Supreme Court rejects additional appeals by the owners of 27 businesses that sell liquor in the far South Side Roseland community. The decision ends a three-year legal battle between community leaders and merchants that began when 9th Ward residents voted to ban liquor sales in 1999.

Sept. 5 Illinois Democrats win a lottery to take control of the Legislative Redistricting Commission, which approves the remapping of state legislative districts. The 118 state House and 59 Senate districts are redrawn every decade, based on Census figures. A lottery takes place when the state legislature fails to draw a map and the bipartisan commission, made up of eight members, deadlocks. The state secretary of state then picks a tiebreaking Democratic or Republican vote. This time Secretary of State Jesse White selects Democrat Michael Bilandic, a former state Supreme Court justice. Republicans, who drew the last map in 1991, challenge the constitutionality of the Democratic map. But the Illinois Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Democratic majority, decides to uphold it.

Sept. 11 Hundreds of workers evacuate their Loop high-rises after terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center Towers and Washington’s Pentagon put the nation on high alert.

Oct. 7 The Illinois Supreme Court rejects a petition by Tina Olison, the biological mother of “Baby T.” The decision marks the end of Olison’s five-year legal battle to regain custody of her son, a former ward of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services who lives with his guardians, Alderman Edward M. Burke and Illinois Appellate Court Justice Anne Burke. The child was born with traces of cocaine in his system and the Burkes, who are white, became his foster parents when he was eight days old. Olison still retains the right to visit her 5-year-old son.

Oct. 9 The Sun-Times reports that Chicago’s homeless population is ballooning beyond the city’s ability to provide resources. And some advocates predict a “crisis” is imminent. More women and children are homeless than in the past, says Brady Harden, president of Inner Voice, a nonprofit that helps manage 18 shelters. Of the 1,428 adults who sought help at Harden’s shelters between July and September, about 25 percent were single mothers, he says. The Sun-Times reports the CHA and the federal Section 8 voucher program were options for the homeless in the past, but more than 33,000 families are on the CHA waiting list and nearly 22,000 on the Section 8 waiting list.

Nov. 2 Cook County State’s Attorney Richard A. Devine requests that Cook County Presiding Criminal Court Judge Paul P. Biebel Jr. appoint an expert to determine if there was legally still time to investigate allegations of torture by former Chicago Police Department Commander Jon Burge and officers in his unit. Devine’s move came after a group of lawyers and activists filed a petition asking for the special prosecutor. According to advocates, at least 66 people, mostly African American, allege that Burge and officers under his command inflicted beatings, death threats, electric shocks and chokings to elicit confessions.

Nov. 2The Illinois Native American Bar Association files a federal civil rights lawsuit against the northwest suburban Huntley Unit District 158 asking for it to get rid of its “Redskins” mascot. The group claims the name originated in “the government’s genocidal policy to offer a bounty for the scalps of Native Americans.” The Huntley High School has been the “Redskins” since 1928. The school board decided to keep the name in April.

Nov. 7 Agreeing to pay nearly $2.2 million, the CHA settles a civil case with the family of Eric Morse, whom two boys dropped to his death in 1994 from a high-rise window. The case went to trial but ended in a mistrial in June. The family had already agreed to settle for $800,000 with Digby’s Detective and Security Agency Inc., which was responsible for security at the vacant Ida B. Wells building where Morse was killed. The family initially sought $60 million in damages from the security firms and the CHA, charging they neglected maintenance.

Nov. 15 The Illinois House declines to override Gov. Ryan’s veto of legislation that would make any murder committed as part of gang activity eligible for the death penalty. State Rep. Susana Mendoza, a Chicago Democrat and Mexican American, proposed the bill in the spring when a special commission appointed by the governor was investigating wrongful conviction cases in the state’s criminal justice system. House Speaker Michael Madigan says Mendoza failed to meet the deadline to file a request. Mendoza says she will revive the bill.

Nov. 20 Yolanda Campuzano, a 34-year-old Mexican American, becomes the first Latina to run for the DuPage County Board. County GOP organizations, which lost a board seat to a Democrat last year, endorse Campuzano.

Nov. 27 The Highland Park Civil Service Commission votes 3-0 to support the decision of Police Chief Daniel J. Dahlberg to fire a whistleblower. The commission found Police Officer Rodney Watt guilty of violating internal rules. Watt and four white former officers filed a federal lawsuit against the Highland Park Police Department in 1999, alleging it encouraged racial profiling in traffic stops. Though an independent investigator concluded last year that the department had practiced racial profiling, U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall dismissed six of the seven charges raised in the case this September. Watt, who is represented by Johnnie Cochran and supported by Rev. Jackson, says he will appeal.

Nov. 28 Declaring “This is a patriotic move,” Gov. Ryan announces a plan to trim the state budget, including a $120 million cut in Medicaid payments. The plan would reduce the reimbursement hospitals and HMOs receive for Medicaid patients, most of them poor people in the Chicago area. The cuts came after the state Senate passed Attorney General Jim Ryan’s anti-terrorism bill, which would boost law enforcement spending. “We’re cutting the budget … because of what happened to the United States,” Gov. Ryan says. “The victims are going to be the same,” says House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat. “They’re all in the social services areas, and almost all of them are in the Medicaid program.” Madigan doesn’t make his own proposal.