All language subtitles for Chicago.At.The.Crossroad.2019.720p.BluRay.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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Immediately afterwards, a heavy dust--

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Three, two, one.

Immediately afterwards a
heavy and dark cloud of ash

started spreading towards the lake.

(delicate piano music)

- [Narrator] It's been
over 20 years since Chicago

began to rewrite a
chapter of its own story.

A story tucked away in the
shadows of its famous skyline.

Closing an era shrouded
in an ambiguous past,

one that, if not remembered,
will soon be forgotten.

This story's legacy,
the violence and poverty

that plagued Chicago's
hyper-segregated communities.

But what is known about the
systems that created them?

The laws that isolated them?

And the policies that abandoned them?

And how does a city heal from decades

of heartbreak and loss?

At the crossroad of a nation.

This is Chicago's story.

- [Crowd] Five, four, three, two, one.

- [Man] Boom!

(booming)

(sirens blaring)

(cheering)

- [Reporter] 72 murders for the month.

- [Reporter] Three days,
68 people were shot.

- [Donald Trump] What the
hell is going on in Chicago?

- [Reporter] That's more
people shot in one weekend

than wounded in a typical
month in battle-torn Iraq.

(garbled speech on radio)

- [Reporter] Putting
Chicago on pace for 700.

- [Reporter] A man was shot
live on Facebook last night.

- [Reporter] Deadly gun violence

is surging in Chicago once again.

- [Reporter] After a
horrific weekend in Chicago.

- [Man] More needs to be done.

- [Donald Trump] More than 3,000 people

have been shot in Chicago!

- Homicide is related to
the desperation of young men

and particularly black young
men in the United States,

and that's what we're seeing in Chicago.

- [Man] When people think of PTSD

as being what happens to
people who've been in combat.

- The choices are very limited.

What I got to lose?

My life?

- You break down a city, it's
like a tale of two cities.

If you are downtown Chicago,
you almost feel untouchable.

Then you go south.

- You go out to some of the neighborhoods,

they just are starved for
resources and investment.

- That's abandonment.

That's a systematic destruction.

(siren blaring)

- It's that pot that's boiling.

Stuff could start spilling out,

or we could turn the fire down.

(siren blaring)

- You hear people, they
present the problem,

and they say, "Yo, this is the problem,

"this is the problem,
this is the problem."

Okay, you're woke, you know the problem.

What is the solution?

(chattering)

(whistle blowing)

- [Peddler] Get your
presidential T-shirts, guys!

- The First Family of the
United States of America.

(cheering)

- [Malik] It's been over a
decade since the world's eyes

were unmistakably fixed
on Grant Park in Chicago.

The night the nation elected its first

African American president, Barack Obama.

The pride of a city
couldn't have been greater.

Chicago felt together, in unison

with a renewed optimism for the future.

Especially me.

I grew up right around Altgeld Gardens,

one of Chicago's most desolate
pubic housing projects.

Home to toxic landfills and
abandoned industrial plants,

the Gardens, where Barack
Obama began his career

as a community organizer.

When I was a kid, you
couldn't have felt further

from the luxury of the
Chicago Loop growing up.

I was one of the lucky
ones who made it out,

overcoming the odds to
become a spoken word artist

and a Grammy-winning producer.

I grew up seeing the bloodshed
of the gang wars in the '90s.

And it was at this moment ...

- America is a place where
all things are possible.

Change has come to America.

(cheering)

- [Malik] That I thought we had reached

a new day for America, for Chicago.

But the feeling didn't
seem to last forever.

By the end of President
Obama's second term,

the world's eyes were once
again focused on Chicago,

this time for all the wrong reasons.

Murder was running through Chicago

faster than the Chicagoans
running from it.

Blood was flowing through our streets.

What was so wrong in the city to make it

the case study for murder and violence?

(somber music)

Or is Chicago just a
scapegoat for a violent nation

and a testament for things to come?

Truth be told, Chicago ranks just ninth

in murders per capita, and
24th for violent crimes.

But in the court of public opinion,

Chicago is an active war zone,

even as mass shootings multiply

and urban violence
escalates coast to coast.

But for Chicagoans, we
recognize the issue.

We know it's up to us to fix it,

because no one else will.

(car horns honking)

- Stop the violence!

- Don't shoot!

Don't shoot!

- On Monday we were told
we're the deadliest month

of August, deadliest month in 20 years.

On Tuesday we were told
Chicago has more murders

than New York and Los Angeles together.

It's all pictures of people
who have been killed.

One is my son.

Right there with the red cap on,

the red shit, that's my son.

That's Travis, the one I
told you about, as you know.

- [Reporter] It has happened again.

This latest victim a six-year-old girl.

- Tonight we're learning more
about a six-year-old girl

who was shot while playing
outside on this hot summer day.

- When I turned her head,
it was just leaking blood.

I just really want us to live in peace.

- Sometimes the only way people can cope

is just to try not to cope,
not even to deal with it,

ignore it like it's not even happening,

because it becomes too much.

And people are afraid.

When a six-year-old girl
from my school says to me,

"Father Mike, will you pray for me?"

I told her, "What am I gonna pray for?"

She said, "That I'm alive
at the end of the summer."

That a child has to even
think like that at six?

They deserve their future.

They have a right to grow up.

- It's growing back.

You got a little afro right there.

- [Interviewer] What do you
want to be when you grow up?

- A doctor and police.

- Oh, so she's gonna have two jobs.

She's gonna be a police
officer and a doctor, huh?

- Yup.

- You gonna be making people feel good

and taking the crime off the streets?

At the same time.

That's what I'm talking about.

My baby.

What's our phrase?

What you want people to do?

What you want these men to do outside?

- Put the guns down.

Put the guns down!

- [Man] We gonna fight and shoot and kill

over blocks that have been
abandoned and neglected,

some blocks that look like
third-world countries,

and we're gonna fight over a block

that other people don't give a damn about?

How stupid is that?

Instead of banding together and say,

"We gonna be in the real fight

"and bring some economic development,

"bring some jobs, bring some hope,

"bring some possibility
back to our community.

You can't just say, "Stop the violence"!

"Give me a job, give me a way
out, give me an opportunity!"

(applauding)

This fight is in our hands.

- [Malik] How did it end up like this?

So violent?

So hopeless for so many?

To truly find the answers ...

we have to go back.

Back to the beginning.

(train clacking)

- [Announcer] Most of the adults

were born in rural areas of the South.

They came to Chicago looking
for a better way of life.

They came to the South Side of the city

because they found that this was a place

where Negroes were permitted to live.

About all that they brought with them

were their hopes and their dreams.

(upbeat rock and roll music)

- They knew if they
could make it to Chicago

from Mississippi, from
Alabama, from Arkansas,

there was work here.

Chicago was a gold mine
if you lived in the South.

- Chicago was the place where people came

so they could build their
families and built their future.

- And you began to work at the steel mill.

People worked at the stockyard.

- You could be an accountant in the North.

You could work for an
insurance company in the North.

You could be a policeman in the North.

- There was harmony,
cohesiveness, and happiness,

because people who fled the South

were looking to the future.

(children laughing)

- [Malik] There was finally a light

at the end of the tunnel
for Southern blacks

and a chance to live the
American dream of the North.

But that light ...

would prove to be nothing
more than a mirage.

- Sometimes we talk about this era

as if it was all wonderful.

- [Timuel] Segregation was part
of the culture of the North.

- The hope I really have,
and I come here to do better,

but after I got to start away,

it looked like to me I did worse.

- This is when the city of Chicago,

with help from the private industry,

real estate, and banks decided,

"Well, we don't want black
people living with white people.

And that began a host of policies

that I call the Jim Crow North.

- The agreement was called
restrictive covenance.

(somber music)

- Black people come from South,

they definitely can't live with us.

So where do we live?

Pushed to the worst neighborhoods.

We're pushed to slums that
others have moved out from.

- [Rev. Saunders] Racism
is structured into housing.

That is when people who are
from a different background

move in large numbers,
you just restrict them

to certain areas.

- We were assigned where to live.

On the one hand, it was
a joy by living together,

free of the burdens of the South.

On the other hand, we were trapped

and could not grow, could not get out.

- [Timuel] The concentration
of people was four times

that of adjacent, white communities.

The Black Belt.

And gradually, block by block by block ...

- The Black Belt just kept
bursting by the seams,

because black people
couldn't live anywhere else.

(dogs barking)

- Chicago was really
notorious at this time

for being a difficult
place for African Americans

to come and find good, fair
housing at decent prices.

- [Timuel] I was there,
and I saw what can happen

to human beings if they're excluded

from the main source of opportunity.

(baby crying)

- It couldn't get much worse.

If it did, I wouldn't be livin' at all.

(energetic music)

- [Philip Jackson] Chicago
is one of the most segregated

cities on Earth.

- [Saunders] You're segregated
by class as well as race,

and so it's almost tribal.

- I find that people of
all races seem to think

that this is something that
just naturally happened.

"Oh, well, I just live around
people who are like me."

- I grew up in an all-black community.

The only time I ever saw
anybody that wasn't black

is when I went to go by food.

I had to buy that from the Arabs.

If I was being detained by the police,

a lot of times it might
have been a white officer.

But just random white people,

just in your hood, they was never there.

You feel like, man, it has
to be some sort of plan

or something behind that to
make it go down like that.

And here we are, living in it today.

- Most people on the North Side,

the reason they don't know
anything about the south side,

it's because they've never
been to the south side, ever.

Ever.

So it's easy to say, "I
don't worry about that.

"That's not in my backyard."

You see what's happening on the news:

boy shot, girl shot, kids
shot on a playground.

And you say to yourself, "I
have no idea what's going on."

- [Malik] To truly understand
the plight of Chicago

into the city that you see today,

we have to go back again,
to the city fathers

who saw the blighted slums

as eyesores instead of communities,

and its residents as
second-class citizens.

Fixing the problem while
maintaining segregation

would prove to be the point of no return.

(emotional blues music)

- [Announcer] Today, the
endless plain is gone.

We must build a new
city on top of the old.

Today we have, and have to have,

a comprehensive plan
for the city of Chicago,

taking into account the
needs of all the people

to have a decent place to live.

- Public housing starts in the New Deal

as a response to the poverty conditions

and also slum conditions
that existed in many cities.

The idea was to clear the
slums, build new housing,

and this will make better citizens.

(curious electronic music)

And this is the kind of
government flow of money

from Washington that
Mayor Richard J. Daley

was very interested in
bringing to Chicago.

- [Richard Daley] This project represents

the future of a great city.

- [Bradford] How are we gonna do this?

Well, it's cheaper to build
up; we're gonna build up.

We build high-rises.

- Federal government said it's high-rises

or you get nothing.

Everyone took the high-rise
across the country.

- [Rev. Saunders] For most of
us who are living in ghettos

and moving into the projects
was a chance to get stabilized

and then to move into the mainstream

of American housing and American life.

- When folks first
moved in public housing,

it was the place to be.

African Americans, they'll tell you that,

veterans'll tell you that.

And we talk about the
'50s, '60s, and the '70s.

- [Man] I think the buildings are nice,

but it's just like taking one big slum

and sit it in another slum,
because nothing's been changed.

(somber music)

- So, yeah, let's try that again.

You wanted it simpler.

Um ...

Public housing failed in Chicago

for a few very basic reasons.

(somber music)

- [Malik] They went up in
waves across the country.

Partnerships between Washington

and local housing authorities.

The government would pay
to build public housing,

and a local entity would manage
the day-to-day operations

and plan the construction.

In this case, the Chicago
Housing Authority, CHA.

Chicago's plan was more ambitious
than any in the country.

A total of 29 public housing communities

would go up across Chicago
in just a few decades.

A mix of rural houses, mid-rises,
and high-rise buildings

were scattered, and then
there were the monsters.

Cabrini-Green on the city's North Side

concentrating more than 15,000, whoa!

If Cabrini-Green was the monster,

well then Robert Taylor was the Goliath.

28 16-story buildings located directly

on the raised South Side slums.

One of a cluster of housing
projects that spanned

nearly four miles, as
far as the eye could see.

- So those were five different
public housing developments

on this one corridor,
concentrated in the heart

of the South Side of Chicago.

That many buildings with that
many poor people in one place.

It decimated the South Side of Chicago.

- [Malik] The city planners had come

too far to turn back now.

The decisions to maintain
segregation in Chicago

would come at a price,

because there were massive
holes in their master plan.

But nobody said segregation would be easy.

Beginning with the
basic function of paying

for the exorbiant upkeep of
the buildings themselves.

The income to maintain
the massive structures

relied mostly on a scaled
portion of tenant wages.

And the bottom would soon fall out

of urban industrialization.

And the funds to operate public housing,

much like the jobs that had
lured millions from the South,

would all disappear, too.

- This building is through.

I'm 33 years old.

I've been here for 33 years.

The heating systems is not working.

- Girl, this don't make no sense.

They should at least have some heat.

- Y'all seen the floods in
the building, the water,

the pipes, them busted
and everything like that.

(somber music)

- When I moved into public housing,

there was rigorous background checks.

There were social workers
who checked in on you.

They no longer did any of that.

They simply took people, threw 'em in.

They said if you want to
live in public housing,

come on, go in there.

- The quality of life
was hell, hell on Earth.

You might go to sleep,
and there might be roaches

crawling from up under your pillow.

You may get on a elevator,

and the elevator smell like urine.

You may be outside playing
basketball, hopping,

and somebody that you
just passed the ball to

might get shot in the head.

I lost a good friend of mine.

He was out just shootin' jumpers,

and they came through and
shot him 19 times, automatic.

- The police always used to say

they don't go into Cabrini
until the shooting stops.

You hear a lot of residents
say they feared for their life,

because the lack of protection.

(soft music)

(chattering)

- [Bradford] Planners made
a choice to build housing

for large families, families
with five, six, seven children.

- Originally there were
seven persons to every unit.

When you couple that with
female-headed families

and average incomes of $5,000.

- [Bradford] They didn't
think about how many kids

they were putting in a building,

versus the number of adults.

- People who were concerned
about their children playing

were up 16 floors while their
children were 16 floors away.

All of a sudden, the children

are now creating their
own rules for living.

Without the connection to their mothers,

their fathers, their
uncles, their grandparents.

If you could imagine a 16-story building

pouring out children,
and then the children

deciding what they wanted
to do, what was good,

whether or not they wanted to fight,

whether or not they wanted to steal.

- You have to put all of
this shift in public housing

at the feet of public policy.

- [Philip] The government
would not pay for a child

who had a father living with that child.

- [Reporter] Fathers of some
children in this building

found their families could be helped

by the welfare department,

but only if they left home or died.

- The father leaves, and all
of a sudden the rent drops.

Hey, that's a pretty good deal.

It became a financial incentive
for the father to move out.

- [Rev. Saunders] My father
could not live with us.

And we had social workers come to our home

to find out if there were men's clothes

or if we had a new television.

(baby crying)

(knocking)

- Jane, this is Mr ...

- Stewart.
- Glen William Stewart.

How are you?

- I'm here to help you
find a place to move.

- What would happen then is that

you've got a lot of children now

without adult supervision from men.

- And the dropout rate in the schools

began to increase dramatically.

Many of the boys were put out of school,

and they were in the
streets, and they terrorized

the communities, this
community and others.

(upbeat electronic music)

- [Reporter] Across America,
public housing is in ruins,

called a national disgrace.

- [Reporter] Cabrini-Green.

To some folks, it has
become a hell on Earth.

- [Reporter] Life in
Robert Taylor is dominated

by welfare, women, and children.

- Either CHA is going to
manage its real estate,

or we should just declare openly

that the gangs have
control of our property

and let them have it.

- It's like some bad movie.

Is there something that can be done?

- Right now, the only organized
activity in public housing

is the gang and the drug dealer.

- Everyone has agreed on one single point:

the place has to be changed.

(shouting)

- Well you see it's poverty stricken.

Basically they need a
lotta jobs over here.

- Somehow you always make it
full circle right back here.

- I would like to see
some jobs come to us,

where we all can make money, get off aid,

and just live like we want to live.

'Cause we see right now we all struggling.

We struggling for money,
food, and everything else.

- Five years from now?

(laughing)

Let me tell ya, I don't really know.

Hope to still be living.

- [Reporter] Reports from Chicago,

where the U.S. government
has just seized control

of the local Public Housing Authority.

- [Reporter] Today's takeover in Chicago

makes the federal government landlord

of America's poorest, most crime-infested

public housing projects.

- [Bradford] In the end, these high-rise

public housing developments
were awful places to live.

By any measure, high-rise
public housing development

should have been closed
for housing code violations

like any other slum building in the city.

By the late 1990s, everybody realized

this had been a mistake.

- [Reporter] In big cities across America,

the consensus is public
housing doesn't work.

And in Chicago, it's coming down.

Chicago will destroy more public housing

than any city in the country.

The debate over what should replace them

and who should live there has been fierce.

- Maybe the thing that was
most detrimental to this city

was the federal government and
the Chicago Housing Authority

pouring folks out that
they didn't prepare,

that they had for generations.

(dynamic music)

- Hundreds of gunshots are reported,

more than a dozen killings in one weekend,

many of the victims are teenagers.

New gang wars are breaking out in Chicago,

and as the homicide rate
is at a near record high.

- [Reporter] Frustration over conditions

in Chicago Housing Authority developments

has reached a new high in Chicago.

- Go.

Get outta here.

- [Reporter] An upsurge in violence

and the debate over how to combat it

brought the Secretary
of Housing to Chicago.

After a night in Robert Taylor homes,

he called conditions deplorable.

- American women and children
are living in a setting

that is violent and demeaning and fearsome

and introduces their children
to a world without hope.

- [Reporter] What those
conditions meant, said the mayor,

is that public housing
in Chicago has failed.

- The bottom line is that high-rise

public housing does not work.

Isolating, as pointed
out, low-income people

in 10- or 20-story
concrete boxes has failed.

- [Reporter] So CHA chairman Vince Lane

pressed Cisneros for a loan of $1 billion

to do what Lane says may be
the only thing left to do.

- [Lane] Totally change public
housing as we now know it.

- [Bradford] There's
a failure of the city,

a failure of the Housing Authority,

a failure of the federal
government in Washington

to allow conditions to
spiral down to that level.

- [Philip] Once you withdrew maintenance,

it was only a matter of time.

- For years community
activists at Cabrini-Green

have been saying the city's ultimate plan

was to move them out of these
buildings and off this land,

because Cabrini is only
minutes from downtown Chicago,

making the land very valuable.

- [Dr. Adams] Public housing was located

on some of the most
desirable land in the city,

the most valuable land.

- [Reporter] Do CHA residents
really want to move?

- [Philip] And so the people
who lived in public housing

said, "We just want to stay here."

- [Reporter] It's the American dream,

a little house in the
suburbs with a picket fence.

- The American dream, for
me, is to be left alone.

- [Reporter] If you could
live anywhere you wanted to,

where would you live?

- I'd stay over here.

I've been raised up over here all my life.

I'm comfortable over here.

- We're just prepared
for the worst right now.

Okay.

- And it went down fast.

Cities had erased ...

(rumbling)

high-rise public housing
from their city plan.

- The entire area will be transformed

into a middle-class, white,
yuppie-style community.

That's what is happening.

That land is worth a billion
dollars if it's cleared.

- There's a conspiracy theory

that what's really going to happen

is everyone's going to be squeezed out,

they will make way for
the big buck developers.

Is that gonna happen?

- No, it won't happen.

And I'm committed to make sure
that public housing residents

are not displaced from their communities.

- It's very difficult to maintain peace

and tranquility in the midst of confusion.

(shouting)

- 'Cause you wear a badge!

They don't love you and they never will!

(somber music)

- [Philip] If we leave
here, where are we gonna go?

If we leave here, where are we gonna live?

- There were 30,000 families
living in public housing.

Where were people gonna go?

Was there gonna be a revolt?

Could this be pulled off?

- My primary concern is,

where's the next generation gonna live?

You think they're thinking
about the American dream?

What is the American dream these days?

- [Malik] The infamous era
of high-rise public housing

in Chicago and most of
the country was over,

a testament to public policy gone wrong,

a failure on all levels of government.

The design was flawed.

The vision was short-sighted.

The empathy was lost.

But the root motivation of
these massive warehouses

for the poor was much more sinister.

- When there were too many black people,

they said, "What are we gonna do?

"Well, let's build these high-rises.

"But we can't put 'em in the white areas.

"Let's rip down houses
in the black community

"and house people within
those neighborhoods."

And all of those projects,
with the exception of Cabrini,

were built in all-black neighborhoods,

and Cabrini then became
an all-black neighborhood.

- The reason that high-rise public housing

was built in Chicago was an
attempt by the city government

to constrain the black
population of the city

in the smallest geographic area.

- That's not a recipe for success;

that's a blueprint for disaster.

- It was too late.

Those buildings were destined to go.

(booming)

(cheering)

- [Malik] It's now been two decades

since the first brick fell

from the mortar of Chicago public housing.

What followed was known as
the plan for transformation.

(upbeat electronic music)

- Now we find ourselves
in the 21st century.

There's a whole lot of
people in the United States

who need stable housing that's affordable.

Even the city of Chicago's estimates

is that there's a lack
of about 120,000 units

of affordable housing.

- Now you have taken away the housing,

but you don't have anything to replace it.

Instead you have condominiums
that are costing $1,800

for one bedroom and
$2,000 for two bedrooms.

- There are some neighborhoods in Chicago

that are becoming unaffordable
because rents are too high,

but there are some
neighborhoods in Chicago

that are unaffordable because people

don't make enough money.

- [Eric] Communities that are
poor, people that are poor,

are getting pushed into
a smaller and smaller box

as gentrification takes
up more and more space.

- And we sort of gave up on
conventional public housing.

We decided that a whole
lot of public purposes

should be privatized, infusing it

with incentivizing the profit motive.

In the public housing realm we decided

to turn it over to private developers,

so the Section 8 programs
came into existence.

Tenants have vouchers where
they can take those vouchers

and have the rental assistance follow them

to whatever landlord in
whatever building they live in,

which is an experiment.

- [Malik] The buildings are all gone.

Only a memory, transfixed in the minds

of the former tenants, as
if you could still feel

the rubble drifting in the wind.

What was promised was new
mixed-income communities.

Though only a fraction of
former public housing residents

were actually allowed to move
back into the new communities.

Most were never built,
leaving vast expanses

of the land just vacant.

- A lot of places have not
even started construction yet.

They still have been empty
for more than a decade.

That was the centerpiece of
the plan for transformation.

Overall, where did people go?

That's the big question.

- [Malik] Life has a
way of just moving on.

But for some former residents,

it feels like it was just yesterday.

- I think about snowball
stands on the corner.

I think about ...

basketball tournaments.

I think about fun days.

And no matter where I went in the world,

for however long, I could come back home.

(somber music)

It's heartbreaking.

A lot of us are running around lost,

trying to figure out who we
are and where we come from,

because we can't take
our kids and be like,

"That's where you come from."

The building I was brought
to from the hospital

is the one over there on
the other side of the park.

Like, you can see it.

Can you see it?

Playground.

Playground, and still this
little area right here.

Then you come up on the tree.

Okay.

I guess it's like in my DNA.

To flock back.

I'm not trying to downplay the violence.

It was very violent.

Some people came out shellshocked.

PTSD and all of that.

This was a war zone.

But at the same time, it was a paradise.

(emotional music)

I ride Paris here often.

I say to myself, "Man, I miss the Ickes."

I knew a lot of people
that were just put out.

"We don't care, you need to go, bye."

If someone can just come in
and snatch your whole world

and livelihood from
you, then what are you?

I'm Lyntessa Williams, former resident

of the Herold Ickes Homes.

- Public housing had become
so problematic in Chicago

that many people just
wanted it to go away.

And in fact, that's what's happened.

- But what happened is that
the buildings came down

at a much faster pace than
anything that was being rebuilt.

What we have found is that
most displaced public housing

residents have lived
on a Section 8 voucher.

- [Bradford] A Section 8
voucher says you, the tenant,

can go find an apartment in
a private housing market,

and we, the federal government,
will help pay your rent.

- [Natalie] And those
vouchers have placed them

in racially and economically
segregated communities

on the south and west sides.

- [Philip] It meant you're
going to a community

that will accept you $800 a month voucher.

That's what it meant.

Now, no one said that.

- [Dr. Adams] A lot of people don't get it

unless it's broken down.

But what you've done is you've recreated

the concentration of poor people

in particular buildings
and sometimes whole blocks.

- There was a cleansing happening.

It was called internal displacement,

from one impoverished
neighborhood to another one.

It was a plan for resegregation

if you look at where people ended up.

- Almost all the residents were forced

into nine or 10 communities.

The communities were
under siege at that point.

(emotional music)

- These young guys,
right, he 15 years old.

His father in jail, his
grandfather in jail.

His mother on the street.

He the oldest.

He got a sister, 13 years old.

He got a little brother, eight years old.

Now he a man.

He just got outta eighth
grade two years ago.

So he gotta take care of his family.

Their choices are very limited.

- The drug trade is probably

one of the largest
employers on the west side.

I did that calculation
of the number of people

who've been arrested and
prosecuted for dealing drugs

out there and then comparing
that with employment numbers.

- [Noonie] What I got to lose?

My life?

I mean, that's the best
thing happen for me,

'cause I can get away from here.

- Is it any surprise that
open-air drug markets

are such a large employer?

No.

Much of it hasn't been rebuilt
since the riots in 1968,

when Martin Luther King was killed.

- [Rev. Saunders] They're just wastelands.

- We from the gutterest parts of the city,

from the most poverous parts of the city,

so you can't put that on no job resume.

We can't say, "Oh yeah, I
trapped the block for 10 years,

"and this is why you should hire me."

The only thing that's
left to do is to hustle,

sell a drug, sell a bag.

- Drug commerce in Chicago
is a very violent business,

and it's settled not
with writs and subpoenas;

it's settled with guns.

I think the murders in Chicago are mostly

due to the drug trades in Chicago.

- Just came from a funeral, man.

It wasn't good.

Wasn't nothin' good about it at all.

(siren wailing)

It's like I'm almost
immune to it a little bit.

But then it make you think about like ...

how your funeral's gonna be,

what's gonna happen when you die.

(somber music)

- [Malik] The realities on these blocks

can be all to harsh for
the young men and boys

who congregate on the corners and stoops

of two-flats and old brownstones,

left with few options and a
seemingly hopeless existence.

- You have to take the time

to really find a community
that will accept you

as a Section 8 recipient with a voucher.

I ended up down here at Garfield Park.

A lot of times you end up
in a community like this.

You gonna see drug dealings every day.

You gonna hear shootings.

It's not like you livin'
in Beverly Hills, you know.

At the same time, what can we do?

I have two boys, two girls.

My oldest son, his name is Edwin Dorcy.

(soft music)

- [Edwin] Growin' up, it
was always tough in Chicago.

Everybody, all these murders
happening, everybody dying.

There was a lot of killers around us,

so it's really a crazy neighborhood.

Kids getting shot at everyday,

so you get accustomed to it, you know.

Any altercation could pop off.

It could start from something little

then escalate to so big,

and then all kids think in their mind

let's go get a gun, you know.

(soft music)

(upbeat hip hop music)

- One of the things about these guys

that I found very unique
is that the brotherhood

and the family environment that they have,

that they try to create
amongst themselves.

They got one or two
houses that they can take

all the guys in, and they
kinda all chip in together,

where they all kinda put
their money together.

They're like, "We're all that we have."

- Absolutely, I worry.

I mean, it's a chance that they take

every time that they go outside.

We live in a really bad environment

where we just really
need to change our ways.

Some kids may turn to
the streets, you know.

Try to hustle.

Yeah, the money fast, but it's always

gonna find a way to catch up with you.

You don't know that your
enemy right around the corner,

watching the whole situation.

You don't know that the
police are watching, too.

There's always different
circumstances, you know,

so keep your head, always
just second think everything.

You gotta watch your back everyday.

It's the most dangerous job in America.

- Does anybody ever sit down and ask 'em,

"What do you want to do"?

I'm pretty sure is not gonna be

the first thing outta they mouth.

They're just gettin' money with that.

That's not their passion.

Somebody's gotta be there to
say, "Hey, you can do this."

Let me show you this over here.

And then you gotta want to do it.

You gotta want to do it.

- He has a lot of potential
in a job or something

opposed to just selling drugs out here

and just being caught up in this vicious,

nasty world that we're living in.

- He love money too much

and don't know how to let it come to him

instead of him gotta go
an get it all the time.

He think I'm always tryin' to be his mama,

when really I'm just being his girlfriend.

He don't wanna listen.

Each time I tell him, he get in trouble

right after I had to tell him.

- [Edwin] I got a son.

I just want to provide for
him, so it's just always hard.

It's just getting your mind focused.

Gotta keep your mind straight

on what you want to do in life.

If you think you could do
it, you probably could do it.

- [Interviewer] Is it tough
to live in the city right now?

- Yeah, it is.

It's tough.

When King get older, I'm actually,

I'm trying to move out before he get five,

move out of Chicago,
outta Illinois period.

Too many people gettin' tooken
out this world for no reason.

Nowhere to raise my son at.

- [Edwin] You don't want
to just wake up to hearing

your best friend getting
shot on the news, you know?

You don't want to wake
up to that every day.

- [Interviewer] Have you
had friends get killed?

- Yeah.

One of my friends, yeah.

Recently.

Just about a month ago.

Yeah.

Some people get away with some things,

some people go to jail.

For every action, there's a reaction.

There's always consequences to everything.

You never know.

Never really know.

- [Malik] Edwin is at a critical age,

no longer in school and
left with few options

to provide for his young family.

The days can be long in
these Chicago streets.

Edwin has reached his crossroad.

Which way will he go?

- I've seen a variety of reasons

as to why some kids turn to
the streets or sell drugs.

It can be as simple as feeding themselves.

When you're 14, 15 years
old, it's hard to get a job,

so this tends to be the fastest,
easiest way to get money.

A lot of times it's the younger guys

who are the ones selling
the drugs on the street,

because the consequences
are lower for juveniles.

(dog barking)

A lot changes when you're
convicted of a felony.

We call these, I guess, in the legal world

the collateral consequences
of felony conviction.

(garbled speech on radio)

It's really hard to see
one of my 17-year-olds

get arrested as a young 18-year-old

and seeing how their lives have changed

and how great the consequences
can be for adult cases.

I met Edwin about a years ago,

in custody at the juvenile
temporary detention center.

He was really at risk the
whole time of being committed

to the Illinois Department
of Juvenile Justice.

We always try to prevent incarceration.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

The judge in Edwin's situation
was unwilling to give him

that third or fourth chance, basically.

- [Malik] Edwin was
charged with possession

with the intent to distribute narcotics

and sentenced to six months in
a juvenile detention center.

He now faces an all too common reality

as a black man in America.

There's nearly an 80% chance

that he will return to
prison after five years

after being involved in
the federal justice system.

- It feels good to be back.

You happy to be out?

Running these streets?

- Feels good.

(woman shouting)

It feel great, you know?

Waitin' a long time,
but it's finally here.

(soft music)

(siren blaring)

- [Interviewer] You gonna see the baby?

- Happy to see the son, man.

I ain't seen him in a minute.

Hey!

(laughing)

Hello, there.

You miss daddy?

Hey!

You miss your daddy?

Daddy miss you.

You wanna go to the store?

- He's an adult now, so he gotta carry

and conduct his self as an adult.

I mean, he gotta be a role model

to his son at the end of the day.

I can't be.

My son was guilty of the
crimes that he committed.

He did his time.

I won't judge him.

That's part of the past.

I strongly believe you gotta
stand behind your children.

Just don't turn your back on
them, before it's too late.

Unfortunately, these younger guys

are the ones that are losing their lives.

I just want him to take
the time, become a father

the way the he's supposed
to be towards his son

and just become a
respectful man in society.

- I seen that happen many times,

somebody just come home out of jail,

been gone for a couple
months or so, come out.

It's the circumstances they still in.

They still around the same
place with the bad negativity,

so kinda drags them
back into it, you know?

They don't got that many opportunities.

They got felonies on their background,

so trying to do something productive

but end up going back
towards down the wrong road.

(soft piano music)

You ain't gonna achieve what
you wanna achieve by tomorrow.

There's always gonna be distractions.

So you just gotta be focused
on everything you wanna do.

You got a dream, just chase it.

Your life doesn't end there.

- We're working with guys age 17 to 25,

guys who've been on the street,

dropped out of high school,

maybe didn't even finish eighth grade,

the ones who have records,
the ones who nobody wanted.

Every other program kicked them out.

These are the ones that we're going after,

'cause these are the ones that
are causing the most ruckus.

- Our objective is high school diploma,

no new cases, clean
drops, a marketable skill,

in other words a new identity.

They didn't come to us with
five minutes worth of trauma;

they come to us with 18, 21,
25 years' worth of trauma.

And they've navigated that trauma

the best way they could figure out.

So our desire is to say, "Yo, you count,

"We see you, you're significant."

- [Keith] We really want
them to kinda get unplugged

from the streets, and we
want to be able to have them

get plugged in with a life coach

and kinda start to work on

doing something different with their life.

- I tell 'em when we first talk to 'em,

"You suck as a criminal.

"You suck as a criminal,
just to let you know now.

"That's why you're on parole or probation.

"That's not perhaps maybe the
design you're created to be.

"Maybe you're designed
to start a business.

"Maybe you're supposed
to run this firehouse."

- It's not about bringing
a kid to a program

and being with them for a couple hours,

and then sending them back out,

but really walking life with them,

being in their life to
help transform their life.

- The language of success,

that is reparation meets opportunity.

Determination and have a plan.

- You can kind of have an approach

that these gus have had all
these hard times in the past.

What I've found is that the guys

have an incredible hunger to get ahead.

I've seen guys go through
drug treatment programs

and then get union jobs.

I've seen guys get their
high school diploma

at an age when they thought
that was completely beyond them

and it was never gonna happen for them.

It's just an incredible
experience when you get to be part

of a guy doing something for themselves.

- [Edwin] I was thinking like,

"Damn, I can't be doing the same thing

"that put me in the same
position that I'm in already.

"Somethin' have to give,
somethin' have to change."

- I can't help but think about
this quote right here, man.

Go out and do something
great with your day.

- Came across this program,

and then that was looking bright for me.

- We believe in you man.

That's what we want you to do.

We want you to succeed in whatever

you want to do, all right?

Go out, man, and do something
great with your day.

- Thanks, appreciate it.

Just like to learn new things.

Yeah, just learning new
things, learning new ways,

and just applying them to the real world.

There's a lot of stuff
that people out here need,

such as job training,

getting my education through the program,

it helps you deal with
emotional stress, therapy.

Very much thankful.

It's a blessing, you know?

Decent blessing, yeah.

Can't complain.

- You know, the guys say to us,

"You guys are the only men who are with us

"who don't want nothing from us."

Nobody believes that anybody
gives a fuck about them,

so I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do.

Because I walk right by you, and you knew

I needed some help, and
you didn't do anything.

You saw a situation and
you didn't come through.

The community is tired.

We got elders who say,

"I stay in my house in the summertime.

"I am not coming outside,

"'cause guys are shooting
up and down the block.

"Not with some BB guns, with
some AK-47s, 50-round clips.

"So I'm not coming outside.

"I'm not gonna be the village."

We believe in journeying with you.

We're gonna journey with you.

We'll love you until
you can love yourself.

You now begin to wear down what was down

in the village to you, with the school,

with the teacher, with
family, with the police.

- There's a small number of guys

who are actually keeping up the drama,

that's actually keeping up the violence.

And if we can tap into those guys

and show them other options
and really help them,

that's gonna begin to
turn the relationship

and begin to change the dynamics

of how this young man thinks
and how he views life.

- If you got up and went to the lakefront

and watched the sun come
up, now the day is yours.

That's rare.

You're a different dude.

- I'm a stay focused 'cause
I know wat I wanna do.

If you make a wrong decision,

there's gonna be a
consequence to that action.

So I learned that younger.

I'm 19, but I learned that at a young age.

I learned that at 16, 17.

To every action there's a reaction.

So it's up to you to do the right thing.

(emotional music)

I was really supposed to
graduate last year but ...

I made it this year.

As long as I get that
diploma, then that's something

that nobody can never take away from me.

Happy that I'm getting it.

For the homies who died, I
know they watching down on me,

knowing I'm doing the right
thing, and they're happy for me.

Homies in jail, I know that they could,

hopefully they get a chance,

get an opportunity like I got
and get their life on track.

Everything works out for the best.

- This drug dealing life,
the consequence will be

either you end up in
jail or you'll be dead.

And it's sad because these are
young kings that are dying.

But then again, I'm thankful because

you gotta go through something
in order to come out.

And my son has definitely
went through a whole lot

and he's finally coming out of it.

- Graduation's gonna
be alphabetical order,

so folks are gonna be
in alphabetical order,

so it's a whole group of everybody else

who'll have their cohorts all together.

- [Edwin] Graduation.

I felt successful at that moment,

being able to give my mama something

that a lot of my family
members didn't have.

I'm very proud of myself.

Very proud.

- It is my pleasure to welcome you

to the Chicago CRED second graduation!

Make some noise!

(cheering)

- And so, for all the challenges we face,

for all the pain we sometimes feel,

I am wildly optimistic about
where our city's gonna go.

Only thing I'm gonna ask is you reach back

and bring two, or three,
or four, or five with you.

If we do that, the numbers of this

will start to turn the city
in a very different way

in a short amount of time.

So congratulations.

I couldn't bee more proud of you.

One step in a long journey.

You guys make me proud every single day.

- Even though I come from
poverty, but the road is brighter,

so I know I got some potential,

potential to do a lot of good things now.

- I would just add that
potential's always been there.

Just having a chance to
sort of rise to the surface.

And he's not a different person.

He has a good heart, all of
our guys have good hearts.

They just maybe haven't had the chances,

the opportunity, the support,
and honestly the love.

And there's a lot of
room in a room like this

and people who believe deeply
in what he can accomplish,

not just today but for the next 10 years,

for the West Side but also for the city.

All right.

So proud of you.

So proud.

Great job.

How you feel, you straight?

- Feeling good.

- Edwin Dorcy.

(cheering)

- I've always told him
the sky is the limit.

You just gotta have the
willingness, the effort,

and the faith, and believe in yourself.

Ain't nobody gonna do it for you.

And hopefully this is just the
beginning to a great future.

- [Malik] It's rooms like
this that have led the way

in reducing Chicago's spiraling
murder rate in recent years,

with investment into the
communities that need it most,

by leaders within these communities.

But more needs to be done to combat

Chicago's stark poverty
and violence epidemic.

Edwin's story embodies the struggle

for so many young black men in Chicago

and cities across America today,

at the crossroad of success
and failure, life and death.

It's a city that rose
from the ashes to become

a global city, once called
the city of the century,

the city of broad shoulders.

So why not here, why not now?

To mobilize a sustainable
and equitable city for all,

perhaps serving as a model
for others to follow.

But the biggest questions still remain.

Where will people live?

Where will they work?

And what kind of city will
future generations inherit?

Because Chicago's story
is the American story,

written by those searching
for a better way of life.

And understanding how we got here

may be the only path forward.

(somber music)