Migrants take over Chicago as a new mayor and a new police superintendent struggle to control the chaos
Drum roll please. By the end of 2023, over 26,000 migrants arrived in Chicago. With makeshift tents, they slept at airports, police stations and vacant school buildings in the city. The chaos spilled over into politics under a new mayor, a new police superintendent and an administration that had no real migrant solutions as the crisis escalated into neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West sides.
The year 2023 began the same way 2022 ended. The migrant problem that began under combative Mayor Lori Lightfoot provided the cliffhanger that gave Chicago much drama in 2023.
As the Hamas-Israeli War took the national and world stage, the migrant crisis continued to rock Chicago and its leadership throughout the year.
As lawsuits were filed and protests were held to oppose erection of migrant tents, other big news stories became subplots to a year filled with surprises and intrigue.
Lightfoot lost her job as mayor. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx decided not to run for re-election. Reverend Jesse Jackson stepped down from leadership in the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
And Chicago will host the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
The convention is expected to be a political spectacle with the migrant crisis still simmering as Governor JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson and other politicos seek to help President Joe Biden win a second term against four-times indicted former President Donald Trump.
Trump in 2023 was bewitched by Black district attorneys and judges across the country, who indicted him and presided over his cases as he stands accused of trying to influence the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, lying about his net worth to obtain business deals in New York, and giving $300,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.
That’s only the beginning of the Trump saga as Special Counsel Jack Smith seeks to bring Trump to justice in federal court, where he stands accused of obstruction and blocking the 2020 election and taking classified documents from the White House when he left office.
Racial tensions continued to flare in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis’ efforts to redefine Black history angered Black leaders and led organizations to pull their conventions from the Sunshine State as part of a nationwide boycott. In August, some Blacks blamed DeSantis’ policies after a white 21-year-old man shot and killed three Blacks at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville.
In Illinois, after defeating Republican Darren Bailey, many Black voters criticized and questioned the leadership of Governor Pritzker after he took the rare step of endorsing several Black aldermen in the city’s 2023 election. Now, there are tensions between Pritzker and Mayor Johnson.
Those stories set the stage for 2024. It’s a presidential election year for Trump and Biden, whose approval ratings continue to sink as some Blacks question his leadership amid growing disillusionment with the Democratic Party.
After a difficult year filled with deaths that include those of Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and, locally, the Crusader’s lead photographer Worsom Robinson, many are looking to 2024 for a fresh start.
For now, the Crusader looks back at stories that made headlines in 2023.
JANUARY
PROTEST OVER PLANS TO USE SCHOOL FOR MIGRANTS IN WOODLAWN
Dozens of concerned residents in Woodlawn protested the city’s plan to use the vacant Wadsworth Elementary School as a migrant shelter. School and city officials were quiet about the plan until CBS2 Chicago aired an investigative story that showed maintenance workers making $1.8 million in improvements to the building. Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not attend three community meetings held to discuss the proposal. Despite opposition, the city moved 250 migrants into the building in February. Community leader Andre Smith and another Woodlawn resident tried to block a CTA bus carrying the migrants, but those efforts failed. By April, the city nearly doubled the population at the shelter to 497.
FEBRUARY
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT LOSES RE-ELECTION BID
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago’s first Black female mayor, lost her re-election bid in the municipal election. After breaking most of her campaign promises, Lightfoot won just 33 percent of the Black vote.
Cook County District Commissioner Brandon Johnson surprised many after taking 20.29 percent of the vote and forcing a runoff against former Chicago Public Schools Chief Paul Vallas, who took nearly 30 percent of the vote.
It was an election that focused on Chicago’s crime problem, but many Black voters saw that as a sign the city aimed to be more pro-police and less focused on police misconduct.
Among the nine mayoral candidates were seven Blacks who challenged Lightfoot, the incumbent who was viewed as a vulnerable contender accused of being mean-spirited and combative in her first term in office.
Five aldermanic seats in the Black wards were up for grabs after the incumbents decided not to run. A total of 13 aldermanic seats on the 50-member City Council were left open after incumbents were forced out or decided not to run.
In a rare move, Governor Pritzker, in the aldermanic elections, endorsed 22 candidates, including 12 in the Black wards.
MARCH
POLICE SUPERINTENDENT DAVID BROWN RESIGNS AFTER LIGHTFOOT LOSES
One day after Lightfoot loses her re-election bid, Police Superintendent David Brown resigns giving two weeks’ notice. Lightfoot appoints First Deputy Eric Carter as interim superintendent.
In his three years on the job, Brown, who once served as Dallas’ Police Chief, led the Police Department through pandemic-era spikes in violence, including 802 homicides in 2021, the worst in Chicago in over a quarter century. The numbers were in sharp contrast to the promises Brown made when he took office. Those promises included a goal to bring Chicago homicides under 300 per year, a statistic not seen since 1957.
APRIL
BRANDON JOHNSON ELECTED MAYOR OF CHICAGO
Despite opinion polls and the Black political establishment against him, Brandon Johnson, during the city’s third mayoral runoff election, was elected mayor of Chicago on the strength of the Black vote. With Paul Vallas receiving strong support from white voters and Black elected officials, Black voters saved Johnson’s campaign in a tight runoff election that gained national and global attention as Vallas’ anti-crime message and police-backed agenda fueled racial tensions.
Johnson took nearly 51 percent of the vote to Vallas’ 49 percent. Johnson won by 15,872 votes. Data from the Chicago Board of Elections showed that Johnson won all 17 Black wards, including the 27th Ward, which voted for Vallas in the primary election.
Johnson won over 80 percent of the vote in nine Black wards. He won over 70 percent of the vote in four Black wards. Johnson’s strongest win was in the 24th Ward, where he won 84 percent of the vote.
KIM FOXX DECIDES NOT TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION
In a surprise move, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on April 25 announced she would not run for re-election. Foxx was the first Black female to head the nation’s second largest prosecutors’ office.
She was elected in 2016, ousting Anita Alvarez, who faced heavy criticism for delaying charging Officer Jason Van Dyke for 13 months, after he shot teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014. Since then, Foxx has thrown out nearly 250 wrongful convictions, many of those from former Sgt. Ronald Watts.
Some seven years after running on a platform to reform Cook County’s broken criminal justice system, at the City Club of Chicago, Foxx addressed criticism that she had been too soft on criminals, saying violent crime decreased in her first three years in office.
She also addressed her handling of the Jussie Smollett case, saying, “the special prosecutor in that case had a mission to determine whether or not I had done wrongdoing, and found that I had not.”
MAY
TRUMP INDICTED FOR FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS DURING ELECTION
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., said the former president falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election. During the election, Bragg said Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels $300,000 in hush money. He said Trump hired people for a “catch and kill” scheme ring to help identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects.
BLACKS WARNED NOT TO TRAVEL TO FLORIDA AMID RACIAL TENSIONS
The NAACP issued a formal travel advisory to Florida and cited Governor Ron DeSantis’ “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”
In a statement, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said Florida is “openly hostile toward African Americans under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis.”
He said further, “the state of Florida has criminalized protests, restricted the ability of educators to teach African American history, and engaged in a blatant war against diversity and inclusion. On a seeming quest to silence African American voices, the Governor and the state of Florida have shown that African Americans are not welcome in the state of Florida.”
TINA TUNER, NFL LEGEND JIM BROWN DIE
Rock icon and global superstar Tina Turner dies, as well as football legend Jim Brown. Turner died after a long illness in her home, in Küsnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland. She was 83. She was born Anna Mae Bullock and married musician and band leader Ike Turner. After divorcing Ike following an abusive 20-year marriage, Tina became a superstar on her own in her 40s, selling millions of records that included No. 1 hits.
One of the greatest professional and college football players of all time, Jim Brown was 87 when he died in his home in Los Angeles. Brown played nine seasons for the Cleveland Browns (1957-65) and led the League in rushing eight of those years. He rushed for 12,312 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry over his career. He also was named a Pro Bowler every year he played. He led the Browns to the League championship game three times, winning the title in 1964, and was named MVP three times.
In 2020, Brown was selected to the NFL 100 All-Time Team and also was ranked as the No. 1 All-Time player on the College Football 150 list to celebrate those sports’ anniversaries. He was named the greatest football player ever by the Sporting News in 2002.
JUNE
SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court voted in a 6-3 decision to outlaw affirmative action in higher education in response to a pair of lawsuits accusing Harvard University and the University of North Carolina of racial discrimination in admissions.
The court’s majority opinion, which all six conservative justices joined, stated that the court has “permitted race-based admissions only within the confines of narrow restrictions. University programs must comply with strict scrutiny; they may never use race as a stereotype or negative, and—at some point—they must end.”
TRUMP HIT WITH INDICTMENT FOR SECOND
Former President Donald Trump received his second indictment as he appeared in federal court in Miami to face 37 felony counts accusing him of mishandling and hoarding classified documents and refusing government demands to give them back while he, Trump, stayed at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida.
It was the first time a former president was indicted on federal charges.
JULY
REVEREND JESSE JACKSON STEPS DOWN FROM OPERATION RAINBOW PUSH
After more than five decades heading the Rainbow-Push Coalition, Reverend Jesse Jackson stepped down as its president. Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, a Dallas minister, was appointed to lead the Civil Rights organization that is headquartered in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Jackson was praised at a big celebration during Rainbow PUSH’s annual convention held at the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn. The special tribute marked the 35th anniversary of his 1988 Democratic presidential primary bid. He also ran in 1984.
Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017 after decades of fighting against racial and economic injustice of Black Americans.
ORGANIZATIONS BOYCOTT FLORIDA AFTER NEW BLACK HISTORY STANDARDS PROPOSED
Several organizations pulled their conventions from Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration proposed to overhaul the state’s Black history standards.
In one benchmark, middle schoolers would learn that enslaved Americans developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the country’s oldest and largest Black fraternity, and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), one of the largest student-governed organizations based in the U.S., decided to move their conferences, scheduled to be in Florida in 2025 and 2024, respectively, to other states, citing a potential “hostile” environment for their members.
AUGUST
LARRY SNELLING NAMED CPD SUPERINTENDENT
Snelling, the Chicago Police Department’s 54-year-old counterterrorism chief, was the first superintendent recommended by the new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.
Snelling was confirmed by the City Council after he beat two finalists: Angel Novalez, the 50-year-old head of CPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform; and Madison, Wisconsin, Police Chief Shon Barnes, 49.
TRUMP HIT WITH INDICTMENT FOR THIRD TIME
Former President Donald Trump received his third indictment in 2023. This one was in Washington, D.C., where Special Counsel Jack Smith served Trump a four-count felony indictment into the January 6, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol. The four charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
RACIALLY CHARGED BRAWL ERUPTS IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
Police arrested several white people in Montgomery, Alabama, after a fight with several Black people. Video of the event shows a white man attacking a Black riverboat co-captain who was on deck talking to a white man. Reports said the co-captain attempted to get the pontoon’s operators to move their boat, but they did not. Passengers on the Harriott II shouted at them to move the boat. After failing to get the pontoon boat owners to move for 45 minutes, the Black co-captain of the Harriott II and an unidentified 16-year-old white male deckhand were transported to the dock to move the pontoon boat.
After the white man on the pontoon attacked the co-captain, other white people nearby joined in the fight. Black onlookers stepped in and fought off the attackers. One Black man hit one of the attackers with a chair.
Five suspects that include a Black man pleaded not guilty to assault charges. In November, co-captain Damien Pickett pleaded not guilty to the assault.
TRUMP HIT WITH INDICTMENT FOR FOURTH TIME
Former President Donald Trump on August 25 took a mug shot after he surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta. District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump with 13 felony counts related to an alleged scheme to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia. The sweeping investigation and the racketeering charges include 18 defendants, including Trump’s advisor Rudy Giuliani and his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
Though it was Trump’s fourth time being indicted this year, it was the only time he was forced to take a mug shot.
Within an hour after he boarded his plane to leave Atlanta, Trump’s Save America PAC sent a fundraising email featuring his booking photo on a t-shirt.
SEPTEMBER
TRUMP’S FINANCIAL FRAUD CASE BEGINS IN NEW YORK
Trump’s $250 million financial fraud case begins after the president’s failed efforts to delay the hearings by New York Attorney General Letitia James. She sued Trump, his business associates—including his sons—and the Trump Organization for allegedly fraudulently misstating the value of assets on filings to financial institutions, which James argues was done in order to obtain more favorable business deals and reflect a higher net worth for Trump. During the trial, ex-attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen alleged Trump told him and then CFO Allen Weisselberg to inflate the value of assets in order to reach whatever arbitrary net worth Trump wanted for himself. Trump’s accounting expert Eli Bartov, who testified that there was “no accounting fraud of any kind,” was flatly dismissed by Judge Arthur Engoron as someone who lost credibility by “doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement.”
“Bartov is a tenured professor, but all that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote.
James and attorneys for former President Donald Trump finished making their cases in December. Closing arguments are expected in January.
OCTOBER
WAR ERUPTS IN GAZA AFTER ATTACK ON ISRAEL
Reports say on October 7, Hamas, a militant group that aims to protect Palestinians, launched a surprise attack on Israel by firing over 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a span of 20 minutes. Roughly 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 240 people were taken hostage, including children.
The attack sparked a vigorous return attack from Israel, which vowed to annihilate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. More than 11,000 Palestinians, including more than 4,600 children, have been killed since the Israeli campaign began, according to Gaza’s health ministry. President Joe Biden has been criticized after the U.S. decided not to call a cease-fire when countries in the United Nations voted for a resolution to do so.
MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON WANTS HUGE MIGRANT TENT IN MORGAN PARK
Outrage erupts in the 21st Ward after Mayor Brandon Johnson announces plans to build a winterized tent for 2,500 migrants in the parking lot of a former Jewel supermarket at 115th and Halsted.
Area residents since 2003 had been waiting for construction to begin for a mixed-use affordable housing development called Morgan Park Commons. Newly elected 21st Ward Alderman Ronnie Mosley angered residents after voting for the plan when he initially said he was against it. In December, Mayor Johnson put the plan on hold without saying why. Recently, a CBS2 Chicago news report said workers reported possible chemical contamination from former tenants. A 275-pound fuel storage stank was found buried on the site.
A Sun-Times/WBEZ two-part investigation revealed that at least 27 Chicago Police officials have ties to extremist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Though disturbing, CPD officials determined that joining the Oath Keepers did not constitute a rule violation. During his campaign for mayor, Mayor Brandon Johnson told WGN-TV Chicago he would fire any police officer affiliated with or having ties to the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.
NOVEMBER
FORMER FIRST LADY ROSALYNN CARTER DIES
On November 19, former first lady Rosalynn Carter dies. She was 96. Her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, 99, attended her memorial service.
The service was held during three days of events celebrating Rosalynn, who spent her final days at home in Plains, Georgia, where she was buried.
Rosalynn and her husband historically appealed to Black Americans because of their support for human rights, the poor and marginalized communities.
DECEMBER
FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR AND FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HENRY KISSINGER DIE
On December 1, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, passed away at the age of 93. Before her appointment to the high court by President Ronald Reagan, O’Connor had served in the Arizona State Senate and on the Arizona Court of Appeals. As a moderate conservative, O’Connor at times upheld race preferences in university admissions, including the case of Grutter v. Bollinger.
O’Connor died days after former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger passed away. He was 100.
Kissinger leaves a complicated legacy after a long career where he advised 12 presidents and shaped U.S. relations with China and the then-Soviet Union. He was appointed Secretary of State on September 21, 1973, by President Richard M. Nixon and served in the position from September 23, 1973, to January 20, 1977. With his appointment, he became the first person ever to serve as both Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, a position he had held since President Nixon was sworn into office on January 20, 1969. However, on November 3, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford removed him from his National Security Adviser position, while keeping him as Secretary of State.
CITY COUNCIL VOTES AGAINST PROPOSAL TO HOLD POLICE MISCONDUCT CASES BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
By a 33-17 vote, the Chicago City Council votes against a proposed provision in the Fraternal Order of Police contract that would allow serious police misconduct cases to be decided behind closed doors, instead of the Chicago Police Board. Mayor Brandon Johnson in October inadvertently approved the contract without giving much attention to the provision. When he realized the provision was included, Johnson urged the Council to reject the provision.
