Fighting the War on Poverty in Urban Chicago (1966)

However paternalistic it may have been. The poor are afraid of one another, and with reason. The desperation of poverty breeds violence. The confusion of urban life breeds distrust of authority, whether it be the school principal of the welfare worker or the policeman. It's a most unusual Negro child who wants to be a cop when he grows up. The child of the ghetto grows up living with violence and without security. He just gets used to one set of peeling walls when his family moves him to another. Eviction is commonplace. Loss of his and his family's possessions is routine. But his biggest fear is loss of a father. For growing up in a slum often means growing up without a father in the home. The tragic consequence of high unemployment is that men who cannot find jobs or who cannot support their families even with jobs often lose hope and leave home. Our slums are filled with jobless men. Some spend their days loitering. Others drift in and out of inferior short-term jobs. At dawn every morning, somewhere in every city,

men line up in the hope of getting one day's work. Some are skilled but barred from full-time employment because of discrimination. Others are unskilled and can hope for nothing better than menial odd jobs if they can find those. Yet throughout the nation, better paying steady jobs go begging. In Chicago there are about 100,000 jobs available and above the same number of unemployed. Unemployment and under-employment are the very roots of poverty and thus the major targets of the poverty program. In Chicago, a neighborhood organization called Lawndale for Better Jobs has found work for hundreds. Started privately under Catholic auspices, now part of the city's official poverty program, it receives job applicants at its center but also sends recruiters out to bring them in from the streets, the bars, and the pool halls. - Mr. Brown. Have a seat right there. Mr. Brown, right here.

Thank you. Now Mr. Brown, tell me what type of work do you do? Well, I mean, I know you've been farming quite possibly. You know how to farm. You do more than, I don't know what you call it, you know, your... Well, run the truck. What did you do on your farm? - Well, I don't know. Little bit of everything. - You know, you present a slight problem. You are 62 and you know, there's not too many companies that want to go. They want to hire anyone that old. Now, I... Well, I have to check. - Sure. Now, I have two companies, I think. I can place you. One company is a janitor. Well, both companies are a janitor. They'll pay approximately $2 an hour. - Sure. Oh, could you... or would you call me about three o'clock this afternoon? - Sure, I will.

- More than likely, they'll want to see you in the morning. But you call me this afternoon. And when you call, I'll get your telephone number. But I'll check these companies and... we'll see what we can do in here. As soon as possible. - Okay. - Thank you. Thank you for coming and I'll look for your call this afternoon. - Thank you. - How are you? - I'm okay. - Okay. You completed two years of high school? - Yes. I was in it. - Have you had any special training? - Special training? - Yes. No, no. - You're not working now? You've been out of work eleven months? - Yes. You've been doing odd jobs for eleven months. No steady employment. Now, I have... Do you know anyone that's out of a job that has a car? - Probably not. - The reason I'm doing this, I would like to get you out here to a company we have out at 119th and Racine,

they start you off at $2.38. You can make up to $6 an hour. It's a forge shop. A forge plant. They have a training program. You learn most of the time by... If a man is off a sick, you fill in for him while he's off. Now, if you'd like that. And if you know someone without a car, and you can get him in here today, I could put you to work tomorrow. - But poverty has many facets. And it can't be eradicated merely by putting the jobless to work. Chicago's approach to the problem has been the opening of urban progress centers in the city's seven worst poverty areas. This one, called Montrose, is in a white neighborhood. The others are in the Negro ghettos. They offer a multiplicity of services. - [singing] Good morning to you, little boy. Little boy, little boy. Good morning to you, little boy. What's your name? - My name is Elliot. - Good morning to you. - The preschool classes have been among the most successful

in the urban centers' activities. The nationwide Operation Head Start is the least criticized poverty program. Momentarily, at least, it has opened new horizons for hundreds of thousands of children. For some that has meant their first chance to have playmates. For others, their first health check. Almost half the nation's poor are children. The purpose of Head Start is to raise the intelligence quotients and the horizons of poor youngsters to those of more privileged children. The hope is that the cycle of inherited deprivation can somehow be broken. - My name is Herbie. Herbie is looking out of the window. I want to tell you what I do in my house. I live in a white house, and there is a big handle on the front door. Usually, you know, the things that are outside come inside.

And if it's right outside your door, it's going to come in or into anybody else's home. If you're not clean, then they're going to have fun. - In the same building as another class for mothers, of course, in home economics. The women are taught how to cook, how to buy things without getting bilked, how to take care of things once bought. In nearby rooms or employment offices, mental health clinics, welfare agencies, adult art classes. Thus, the urban centers offer a whole range of services for productive adults. For those who have completed their productive years,