DORIS LEWIS, RETIRED Chicago Public School teacher and member of the Concerned Black Citizens of Chicago, is calling on the city to adopt their “Contract with Black Chicago 2023,” which calls for 29 percent of jobs, in every city department and a restoration of the original intent of the Taxing Increment Financing (TIF) to improve blighted areas.
Seeks to file class action lawsuit
Retired Chicago Public School teacher Doris Lewis has finally found lawyers who are willing to listen to her demands that the city of Chicago create an emergency plan for African Americans, as it did with the migrants, called the “Contract with Black Chicago 2023,” which addresses the inequities of city resources including jobs, housing, and education.
Lewis, a founding member of Concerned Black Citizens of Chicago, refers to the more than 23,000 migrants who are being bussed into Chicago by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s staff has confirmed the migrant crisis will most likely cost taxpayers $361 million by the end of this year, information which has strained the relationships between the migrants and the Black community.
“We are looking to file a class action lawsuit against the city of Chicago and are talking to lawyers with the Downs Law Group,” Lewis told the Chicago Crusader on December 23.
Lewis, who lives across the street from the Lake Shore Hotel, located at 4900 S. DuSable Drive, where the city has placed some migrants, said, “They say there are 400 migrants there, but now there are over 600. I don’t think the city knows how many people are in that hotel.
“We are concerned about the safety, crime in the area and taxpayers’ money being used to house them, feed them, to clothe them, where we have people, 50 percent of them being Black and veterans, who are homeless. The city of Chicago is not taking care of the citizens of Chicago,” Lewis argued.
“We are trying to find out where is the city’s money coming from that is being used to take care of these illegal migrants. That is our major concern.
“They are not migrants,” she said, referring to the legal definition of a migrant who is a person who moves from one place to another to find work or better living conditions in their own country. “These people are coming from around the world. They are not in harm’s way. There is no war where they came from.”
Referring to the Chicago New American Plan that former mayor Rahm Emanuel put into place in 2011, Lewis said, “It’s for immigrants only. If you read the plan, it does not mention native Black Americans at all. That’s discriminatory.”
Lewis’ group wants the city to embrace the “Contract with Black Chicago 2023” that she says will provide 29 percent of the city’s resources to create parity that she says is “well overdue.”
African Americans, Lewis said, “are descendants of enslaved Black Africans. The problems facing our communities are too deep and wide to just reform certain areas. It is time for us to define our own narrative regarding how equity is dispersed to Black Chicagoans.”
The “Contract,” Lewis said, “targets racist systemic policies that have endured for decades and are directly related to economic deprivation throughout the Black community. It comes at a time when the Black community is recovering from a pandemic in which the Black mortality rate is twice that of whites and nearly half of Black-owned businesses have closed.
“It comes at a time when the Black community is coming to grips with the negative impact that immigration, legal or not, is having on the skilled and unskilled job market that adversely impacts Black Chicago.
“It also comes at a time when special initiatives are set up for others (Hispanics, Native Tribes, and anti-Asian Hate Crimes Bill) to the exclusion of tangibles for the descendants of enslaved Black people who survived 240 years of slavery, 90 years of Reconstruction and 40 years of Jim Crow to this day,” said Lewis.
“It was and is Black labor that built America and made it the wealthy country it is today, including our beloved city, Chicago. Our struggles for justice, economically and otherwise, make it possible for immigrants (white and others) to enjoy the wealth and advantages of our city and country.
“The depreciation of Black life is entrenched in Chicago’s political economy and is in arrears for change. The ‘Contract with Black Chicago 2023’ is a process to advance racial economic justice. Chicago cannot grow and become stronger without improving the lives of those at the bottom of the economic pile.
“Contract with Black Chicago 2023 is an extensive approach with regards to an active plan that addresses the economic future of Blacks in Chicago.”
The “Contract” also addresses education. She says a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows Black students who have one Black teacher in elementary school are 13 percent more likely to enroll in college.
“Black students comprise 35.8 percent of Chicago Public Schools. Black teachers are 21 percent. This is due to the closing of schools on the West and South sides of the city under the Emanuel administration,” stated Lewis.
“We are demanding and expecting an increase in employment of teachers and ancillary staff (social workers, counselors, speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and nurses) of 29 percent to reflect the Black population of Chicago.
“Chicago Vocational High School currently offers seven vocational programs, return it to 30 programs that it once had. Open more vocational educational programs on the South and West sides of Chicago. Place a moratorium on charter schools. Restore CPS to a school system, not a business.”
In addressing the Chicago Police Department, Lewis said, “As of 2022, 50 percent of police officers are non-Hispanic white, 25 percent Hispanic (of any race) and 21 percent Black or African American.
“To address past systemic racism plaguing the CPD, we are demanding an increase in employment of 29 percent for officers, sergeants, lieutenants, detectives and commanders to reflect their population.”
Looking at the Chicago Fire Department, Lewis said as of April 18, 2022, this Department is comprised of roughly 75 percent white males, 15 percent Black or Latino, and 12 percent Black, African American. To reflect the Black population of 30 percent, we are demanding employment in all categories of the CFD to be 29 percent.”
Lewis is not happy with the Chicago Department of Transportation’s employment record. “This Department operates the nation’s second largest public transportation system. Its racial make-up is 63 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 12 percent Black, African American or Foundational Black Americans.
“We are demanding that the percentage of employees represent the minimum population of 29 percent for consultants, attorneys, business analysts, project specialists and systems analysts.
For the Chicago Housing Authority. Lewis said, “This Department is comprised of 719 employees. CHA is white (54 percent), Hispanic or Latino (13 percent) and Black (12 percent). This percentage of Black employees is disgraceful, and we demand an increase of personnel to reflect the population of 29 percent.
The Department of Aviation manages one of the world’s busiest airport systems, which services over 100 million passengers a year. According to 2020 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 94 percent of the country’s aircraft pilots and flight engineers are white. Only 3.4 percent are Black.
“Chicago has played a significant role in aviation, starting with two Black men in the 1920s: Cornelius Coffey and John C. Robinson. However, in 2022, Black employment in this Department does not reflect the minimum population of 29 percent. We are demanding an increase of Blacks in the Department of Aviation.
The contract also calls for 29 percent hiring in the Chicago Building Department, the Department of Planning, the Department of Procurement Services, the Department of Public Health, the Chicago Park District, the Law Department, the Department of Human Resources, and the restoring of the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to its original intent to improve blighted areas.
“It is our civic responsibility to hold politicians accountable to seek equity for Black Chicagoans so that we can eliminate chronic poverty due to racism,” said Lewis.
“Poverty that has caused and continues to cause frustration, hopelessness, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, violence, and crime that permeates our city today” must end, she said, replaced with equal resources needed for Blacks to also get their fair slice of the city’s economic pie.
