| Curator's note: This piece by Rich Samuels first aired in January of 2002 as part of WTTW's "Chicago Stories" series. It documents the pioneering and perhaps quixotic efforts on the part of some residents of Chicago's North Shore to bring open housing and civil rights advocacy to an otherwise almost lily-white suburban area (among their achievements was bringing Dr. Martin Luther King Junior to speak on the Winnetka Village Green). Featured in this half-hour documentary are Lillian Calhoun, Linda Davis, JoAnn Ugolini, Jim McNulty, Oscar Johnson, Rabbis Arnold Wolf and Robert Marx, Ted Repsholt, Eve Noonan and Father Timothy Lyne (who evokes the memory of Monsignor Raymond Hillenbrand, the social activist pastor of Winnetka's Sacred Heart parish). Also included are scenes from a 1964 WMAQ-TV documentary anchored by John Palmer that tells the story of an interracial exchange between the Raymond School on Chicago's South Side and the Sacred Heart Parish School. If you find this documentary interesting you may also wish to view my 1985 piece on Emmett Till. |