2008 FEB 05 Come and Hear Dr. Robert Brazil at THE GAP Meeting

About the Book
I have read many documents about the transition of young people, who have become successful after a transition, through dangerous neighborhoods. I never saw my neighborhood as dangerous, although it has been written about in Native Son, Quincy Jones’ biography “Q”, and many other books of repute.



I had many role models and mentors in my neighborhood who were known world-wide, and my ventures were successful because of their diligence, and the close attention paid to my progress by some men who would normally be seen in society as anti-social. The Bronzeville area was developed during the first decades of the 20th century, this “city-within-a-city” was home to numerous nationally prominent, African-American-owned and operated businesses and cultural institutions. This district offered a commercial alternative to the race restrictions and indifference that characterized much of the city during the early part of the 20th century. Between 1910 and 1920, during the peak of the “Great Migration,” the population of the area increased dramatically when thousands of African-Americans fled the oppression of the south and immigrated to Chicago in search of industrial jobs. Further development of the area was halted by the onset of the Great Depression. Many famous people were associated with the development of the area including: Jesse Biga, banker; Anthony Overton, entrepreneur; Joseph Jordan, musician; Andrew “Rube” Foster, founder of the Negro National Baseball League; Ida B. Wells, a civil rights activist, journalist and organizer of the NAACP; Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot; and Louis Armstrong, the legendary trumpet player and bandleader who performed at many of the area’s night clubs. The name, “Black Metropolis,” became firmly established with the publication of a 1945 sociological study of the same title, in later years the area was referred to as “Bronzeville,” a term attributed to an editor at the Chicago Bee.

Dr. Robert Brazil

Brief Bio

Dr. Robert D. Brazil was Principal of Francis Parker High School for three years, before beginning his tenure of sixteen years as principal of Sullivan High. He has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, Instructor at the National College of Education, and Northern Illinois University, and at the time of his retirement from Sullivan, he retained his position as Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, and Director of the Paideia Institute of Hyde Park. Dr. Brazil received his degrees from Chicago Teachers College, De Paul University, and the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign, with advanced graduate studies at Northwestern University, St. John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the University of Oxford, England. He is author of The Engineering of the Paideia Proposal, and A Covenant for Change, both published by the University of Illinois Press. In 1999, he completed his work on the Probation Process in Chicago, with the foreword by CEO, Paul Vallas, who later entered the Race for Illinois Governor in 2002. Beyond This Place, There be Dragons. The Chicago Public Schools Probation Process . 1999. http://www.authorhouse.com/. His latest work, also available at http://www.authorhouse.com/ is Memoirs of bronzeville, 2004.

Dr. Brazil has accumulated numerous awards for Sullivan High School, including every one offered by the City of Chicago, The Chicago Board of Education, and the Rogers Park Community Council for Anti- Vandalism and Beautification. Other awards for Sullivan have come from the Illinois Alliance of Essential Schools, Fel- Pro Corporation , The Field Foundation, IBM, The Carnegie Foundation, The Amoco Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The Whitman Foundation, The Joyce and Searles Foundations, The W. Alton Jones Foundation , and the John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation.
Ten teachers under his stewardship have been named winners of the Blum- Kovler Outstanding Teacher Award, presented annually at the University of Chicago. Visitors from England to Australia to Alaska, and most of the contiguous states have come to view the implementation of the Paideia Proposal, and the Coalition of Essential Schools Programs championed by Mortimer J. Adler at the Institute for Philosophical Research, and Ted Sizer at Brown University, respectively.

Dr. Brazil has won many awards himself. He was named outstanding Principal in District Two, Outstanding Secondary Principal in Chicago by the Citizens Schools Committee, Whitman Foundation Awardee for Outstanding Principal in Chicago, and in 1992 received the " Those Who Excel Award" from State Superintendent of Schools, Robert Leininger. He directs the Staff Development of the other Paideia Schools in Chicago, as it relates to The Paideia Proposal, and in other cities. He also works as a consultant for the Chicago Public Schools,The National Board for Recertification, facilitator for Immersion Retreats at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and Graduate Institutes at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico and The University of Oxford, England.

Free Preview
I took pictures of my neighborhood and like all urban areas, it has changed dramatically. On either side of 35th street, between Indiana Avenue, and South Parkway, [ Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive], there was one mom and pop business, after another, That business supported that family. Closer to my home, on the south side of 35th Street, there was a drug store on the southeast corner of Indiana Avenue, and eastward, a live chicken house, where you selected your chicken, and they cut off the head, and defeathered the chicken while you waited. This establishment was next to Al and Harry’s poolroom and bar, a “chicken in the box” restaurant, a beauty parlor, a store that cleaned and blocked hats, south of the drugstore on Indiana, a cigar store on the southwest corner of 35th at Indiana,, Smitty’s Corner on the northwest corner, Jay’s Men’s Store on the northeast corner. Pekins Cleaners occupied the southeast corner of 35th at Prairie, with grocery stores on the other three corners of 35th at Prairie. Between Indiana and Prairie, there was also a take-out restaurant, that sold fried fish. The fish restaurant, and “chicken in the box” restaurants, were always filled to capacity, with party-goers on their way home at two or three o’clock in the morning. A Mc Donalds and larger business establishments presently occupy the entire south side of 35th street, replacing my six flat home, grocery stores, and all of the businesses between Indiana and Prairie. I fondly remember an ice cream parlor on the north side of 35th Street between Prairie and Giles Avenues.

In the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X noted that whenever a “black leader”, was interviewed on television, he always seemed to look back in time to remember that professional blacks were the role models for black people, and that they have been replaced by professional athletes, and drug dealers. It is probably difficult to imagine for today’s youth, but I remember when there were no black baseball players, basketball players, or football players to idolize. I remember Jackie Robinson, and Larry Doby, entering the National and American Leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Cleveland Indians, respectively. I played against Sweetwater Clifton as a softball player in Chicago. He was the first to play professional basketball that I could remember. He batted left-handed, and could hit the 16” softball a country mile. Malcolm X felt that integration, or how it was implemented, had injured the black community, and would cause further divisions, instead of having blacks come together. Indeed, many of my colleagues feel that blacks have a “crabs in the barrel mentality”, or the “first or only black to do this or that” mentality.


Stan Conners, Class of 1953, stood on the stage at Wendell Phillips High School addressing an alumni gathering, sponsored by the Wendell Phillips Class of 1953. It was a gathering of many classes, and we all sang the “The National Anthem, The Black National Anthem, and the Wendell Phillips School Song. Stan stressed the need for a return to the pride that the school was filled with when we attended the inner city institution. He spoke about a man named Mushmouth Johnson, who was a big time black gangster from 1900 to 1915. Mushmouth died, leaving a $500,000.00 fortune to his sister, who married Jesse Biga. Biga then established the Biga Bank on 35th at State Street. The bank folded and Stan told us that his mother related to him that the reason that they were poor, is because they had lost all of their money in the Biga Bank Crash along with other banks in the 1929 Stock Market Crash.

I was sharing my latest offering, “ Memoirs of Bronzeville”, which was a recollection of my own experiences, growing up in Bronzeville, and having many successes and setbacks, on a road to a doctorate degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a successful administrative career. Stan and others had stories to tell, and I was asked by several alumni, including Carl Boyd, a close friend, outstanding educator, and Bronzeville native, to write an extension of “Memoirs of Bronzeville”, which would include the experiences of others sharing their views..

The text would offer a multi-faceted account of how others viewed Bronzeville, on Chicago’s south side.

We were sitting in the dining hall at the old Chicago Teachers College, betting a quarter on who could tell the biggest lie.

The winning entry was noted:

“ The preacher was selling fire and brimstone in a fevered pitch and the church was rocking like a blues festival out of control. The congregation was flowing to the left, to the right, then up and down, when one of the younger, less experienced sisters in the congregation, fell out of the balcony, but grabbed a chandelier on her way down. Her position, however left her underthings, and beautiful legs exposed to the congregation below. The astute minister grasped the need for intervention immediately. He addressed his flock: “ Brothers and sisters, please do not look upon thy sister in her moment of need. Hear me! “ If you will not heed my word, may the lord send down a bolt of lightning striking the sinner blind. The congregation bowed its’ collective head, until the ushers could assist the terrified young woman, and place her back in her appointed pew. However, one old deacon, in the “Amen Section”, placed his right hand over the right side of his face, looked up, and declared, “ I,m just going to have to take a chance on one eye.”

Maurice Smith, Phillips alum, and future Loyola University M.A. sat down at the table and asked what this was that we were eating. We politely told him that we were all eating chicken. Maurice remarked that he was very surprised, because in his house, they were so poor that the chicken never consisted of anything more than the head and the feet. Although Maurice was not officially entered in the contest, we reluctantly pushed the quarters over to him.

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Please refer to our February 5, 2008 meeting notice for more information.

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