Thank you for all of the questions, thank you so much to all of you for being here. [applause] and now more from the printers row lit fest in chicago. Thanks so much for joining us today. This session is entitled Neil Steinberg, every goddamn day t highly selective, definitely opinionated, and alternatingly humorous and heartbreaking Historical Tour of chicago. In conversation with sherman thomas. oh, yeah, lets give it up. [applause] neils book will be available for sale and sunk at the book sales and signing tent on your map is marked n. N. , nancy nancy, or neil neil. Neil steinberg is a daily news columnist for the chicago suntimes where he iss bent on staff since 1987. His books include out of the wreck i rise, and you were never in chicago. Both p published by the universy of Chicago Press. Our moderate today, thomas, is a fascinating blend of modern historian, cultural worker and public employee. A lifelong resident of chicagos south side, he attended calamine high butut graduated from Harvey Middle College and Alternative High School located in a branch of the city colleges. He would argue study english and africanamerican studies at Eastern Illinois university where he waso initiated into a fraternity, much respect. And employ it chicago area our utilityce since 2011. Bill begin making tiktok videos in an effort to bond with one of his seven children. As the session is being recorded by cspans, ask that during the q a session that you please use microphones on the standing mic so that we may be able to hear you. Please let us give a warm welcome to our panelists as they come before us. [applause] well, thank you for all coming. He my wife who is a master of the succinct this said do you know anyone who comes out of this really wants to be here. And when i saw is going to rain only, its not hard enough to sell books to people. I Neil Steinberg come a comes with the chicago suntimes as mentioned my name is bilat, im a Chicago Story and to her company owner. [applause] i were going to talk to you today about the role of history in our lives. When youve is Chicago Press asked me to write this book, he asked me to write a history of breaking into 366 daily part and a book like that applies to reading it every day. I do feel history is something come is like working out or something, something you need to do. Were going to talk a bit about why its important. As i was coming into is thinking about Governor Abbott sending all thosewi buses up with immigrants from texas and i was thinking, this is our wheelhouse. Chicago is this historic [applause] role t of people who come here because we are the welcoming place. And theres a certain consistency that i really love in looking at the stores and we can talk about this. I hope youse ask questions or io question and answer session because of what the something be meaningful about this. One thing about history is it draws you in, interacts with you. One of the joys of this book is because i had 366 date to hit and i o start by todd but how i kind of puta this together because it was a very daunting task andce i thought okay, i had certain things. What is chicago . Is industry and its labor and its race and its culture and its sides. I kept hitting all the sinks and certain things i would go and look for them and i would say okay, theater. We are a theater town, very important. Who was a big playwright from chicago . Whats his bigplay . The beautiful thing about of late is it happen on a certain date and this is a history with the dates become for import. The day, heres the opening of the play come here of the people place. Calling up, you and i try to stop it easy but theres Mike Nussbaum the wonderful 95yearold actor who [applause] who was still on the stage. He i have interviewed before. I call them up, mike, im about the Opening Night of glengarry glen ross, what can you tell the . He said i do windows the famous story about him freezing up and forgetting hisis life. I said no, tell me. So everyone but me knew the story and thats the beauty of doing what i do as you can be completely ignorant of things. I learned so much doing this book and ensure you find the same way even showing around neighborhoods. Dila gives tours. One of the many things he does besides beingng a tiktok tiktoka story. Lets have a seat. I tend to be very enthusiastic. Where was i . I lost my train completely. I hate to do that to you but no, youre telling us about the process at how you pick stories, maybe why you picked the stories you pick. Certain things you had to end this is actually the hardest part. As a writer come to me how do you bore someone . You porcelain by telling them what they already know. And so certain things you have to put in a book about chicago history of the great chicago fire, the st. Valentines day massacre, et cetera, et cetera. So i would try to find the thing that i didnt know to focus on like the st. Valentines day massacre, right . I thought of leaving iter out. There were a lot of chicago murders for i know we are going with this. You have to pick and choose. But valentines day is a set date which helps and reading up and history of it and theres a moment when the corner is having an inquest and hes talking to the relatives of the seven swingman and he calls for the wife of one of the gangsters come frank, and two women stand up. And that is one of the moments but sadly theres only one story in the next days treatment had this and is a lot of falsity, to talk with the importance of history being real especially in this time. And things that a are presenteds true are notot really true and well get to that in another famous story. Like the fire . Lets get to, st. Valentines day done quicker it turns out the mascara because it was unsolved cause the creation of this crime lab. One of the alternates of the we need i can Scotland Yard to solve these crimes. The actually did w it it was a rare suggestion that bore fruit. This was i want to say for years before the fbi had a crime lab. So i focus on the crime lab aspect which is the aspect we didnt know. You are fairly literate audience i imagine because you are here, but the chicago fire. Whats one thing that Everybody Knows . That cow. The cow. The was a cow. The only reason actually at five cows, okay . Co what the whole cow, faceting can you look at as a cultural aspect. The cow kicking over the lantern is just a piece of antiirish. Mr. Sort of like racists, at the time to i wish were black. Drop the inwardhe were you call, its just allows you to say without saying, yeah. Its exactly that. The fact that he continues to be permeated, right, like 100 years later it is to repeating the cow story. Id always asked the we just wont stop saying it. Its sad and relevant. The who are involved . Who is the of you know when i was a kid the story was the people on the ship and were discovering the place for the first time. And theres no one here but these savages. And we pushed them aside and everything. And suddenly we realize that thats not quite the anymore. And some people and i wont say who portray that as some sort. Portray that as some sort of weird kind of moral uptightness or something. When actually its more a description of what actually occurred and thats sort of the beauty of writing a book based on dates because i found sometimes there were two things that i really wanted to write about and they happened on the same date. August 15th. Thats a great day. Normally i dont cut people off, but august 15th happens to be my birthday. [applause]. All right . Whatever youre going to say happened in chicago history, also, i was born in chicago at the old prentice. Very important things that happened on that day. I have to tell you, at the bears game and i said why didnt invited to go after he committed to this and i said why didnt you just decline, i could have covered for you and he said, no, i made a commitment, im here. So thank you, thank you very much. Thank you. The two things besides his birth that happened, one was the unveiling of the picasso statue in dealey plaza and ive been writing for the sun times for 35 years and often i would be given the big history story to write because i like that sort of thing. I dont complain as much as other writers would. And so when they gave me the picasso, i paused because i hated the picasso, i despised it i saw it as a piece of art a canny spaniard foisted upon us after the craving for european approval. I didnt want to write that as the anniversary story, thats not going to fly. And i called mca, talk me through why its important. Had me talk to jeff koontz, the artist with the rabbits. And explained it had been made big and i wanted to get that in and you start to nibble around the corners. Gwendolyn brooks read a poem and in the 60s, officiate for a stamp of approval and a poem art stings, and what did she think of the picasso sculpture, she hated it, thought it was stupid. So i dont have to say that was the opening statement, Gwendolyn Brooks thought it was stupid. And see how i got my words in the mouth of one of the great poets of chicago and the other thing was the battle of Fort Dearborn and used to be known as the Fort Dearborn massacre and this is where the structure of the book would help me. That was against the hiku that i committed to. What happened the day before . Well, the day before black patridge comes to the captain at the fort and gives back his friendship medal and says i cant give this to you, were all going to kill you tomorrow. I cant keep these. We shifted it from a massacre to a battle because thats what actually happened. It was a battle where the americans got the the soldiers got their as kicked and never the portrayal part, the women and children left Fort Dearborn and then the savages caused them and this is where our history is so important in taking a data allowing a person to worm hole. The rule back then and i wasnt alive even if i look like and what i heard was if you were going to forfeit something or surrender it, you surrendered it intactment if you surrender the fort, it comes with food, munitions and water all of those things. Youre saying dont kill us for the fort and the things. And what happened, they left the fort and took the things, too. Thats why they were hunted down, violation of a term of an agreement, right. It wasnt because they were savages and felt like chasing people. No, the trust had been broken, a violation, a code. If it was reversed the exact same thing would have happened, if indigenous would have crossed what we now call rogers road at any point and tried to set up shop, it would have been an issue, hey, you broke this particular treaty we had. So, thats were understanding that story more is important and i love that thats how you came to it because oftentimes were fixated on the date that it happened, but something happened the day before and something happened the day after and those incidents are very important, too. The full story is better, right . Wouldnt you agree . Because when you look at what the purpose of history isment why are we reading this . Okay, theres a trivial aspect as well. How come the ohare tags say ord. Why is the baseline madison and state. That kind thats interesting in itself sort of, but then its also so much better to see a connection between who we are and who they are. Because theyre really the people tend to be the same although there are things wildly different. Sometimes shockingly so and again, going back just trying to find something that happened on a certain date. I found a date in 1978 when the curator of french art at the Art Institute stuck his head in the Directors Office and said, weve lost cezans and theyre doing a treasure of pompeii story and they had stuck them in a locked janitor closet with cleaning chemicals. They didnt know they were stolen and then did a survey how many employees had keys to this closet and 300 employees had access to it. Now, and i was here in 1970, i just didnt remember that. So, that theres a number of things like that that i just, i was like really. One of the things we take pride in chicago for the same thing. Its pizza and i mean, jazz, but these are standard things. And one of the things i discovered in the 1900s in the progressive era, chicago had the First Free School buses and we had them because we had the first school for kids with disabilities, and the reason we had that was the way it was in 1900, if you had to get to school, you had to get to school and you were responsible for who could come and get you. If you had no legs you would make a gocart and push yourself down the street or ride on a kids back. And chicago said this wasnt good. We created a school, first in the world and thats something im a chauvinistic as the next and so cool to find things at that we had done before anything that id never heard about. We had the First Blood Bank at cook county hospital in 1933. And the guy who did it an amazing hungarian doctor, prior to transferring blood was focused and making medicine palatable to children by making it like candy. Emma goldman, who knows who emma goldman is, the red queen. You tend you slap one word on it and you dont get the great back story and she wasnt a chicagoan, but she came to chicago in 1900 when mckinley was assassinated because she was down in st. Louis and when they grab i cant pronounce his name and so thank you. When said why did you do it . He says i went to a speech by emma goldman and she said, she was against government so i bought a gun and killed the president so she was the arch conspirator and she came here because she didnt want to get arrested in st. Louis. Her plan was to get was to sell her story to the tribune for 5,000 and use that money for her defense and then be arrestedment she didnt get the chance to sell it to the tribune. Theres a beautiful scene shes taking a bath and the police come bursting in, so she puts on a kimono and arrested and in her autobiography she has an interplay with her and the cops giving her the third degree. I know you were in buffalo, i saw you myself. Its just hysterical and i was happy, i kind of fell in love with her putting her in the book like this, a tremendous character. And who else was there, well, she wasnt in buffalo, but another imported or migrant chicago was was robert todd lincoln. Right, he was there in buffalo when mckinley got shot and those its those type of things that make history important, right . Its those ties and connections. After his father was assassinated his family, they moved to the town of hyde park and they were there during the chicago fire and then he every politician no matter what side you were on thought it was a good idea to have lincolns kid with you, right. Everyone always gave them jobs and first kind of major job was i cant remember what country he was in no he was the secretary of war for mr. Garfield. Garfield. And garfield gets assassinated and he was there when mckinley got assassinated, too, right . And he has a cameo in my book, his mom, Mary Todd Lincoln was here, i didnt know, she was her for the great chicago fire. When i did the chicago fire for unis times, i started with her, its startling to have the president s widow with the flames. Thats where i learn from that and we spoke on the phone. You naturally dont think that a white gentleman from the northern suburbs and the brother from the southside would naturally get along. The very first time i told you i probably agree with about 88 of everything you said, man. And in true neil form said i would have thought you were a liar if you said 100 . I asked him to do this with me, it doesnt matter the form of the history, i wrote a book. He was tik toks. I might do a tik tok and i hope he writes a book. The romans wax with the stylist. When people focus i like books myself, but i have a kindle. Its not the format that much. Books are great because theyre always there and you pick them up and you rediscover them. But i do think, you know, going through this book, you know, you have to ask yourself, whats the purpose of these stories, okay . A lot like were seeing Southern States that are getting rid of books because they challenge their sense of supremacy. To me, thats the complete lack of confidence. Okay. I can write about the grotesque racism and i could never write novels. Like doing this book, i went and id say okay, i dont want it to be a white guys history. Im a white guy, but i want to see, okay, i need a mexican, hispanic, latino story so i talked to carlos, the man who created the mexicanamerican art museum, how many people have been here . Fantastic, right . A lot of chicagoans dont know about it so he told me the story how a group of five teachers, how it begins, teachers so disgusted by the lack of mexican history in their textbook, they started this Cultural Organization that became a fantastic museum. So, sometimes, and i was looking for something, i wanted asians, so i found a japaneseamerican diaryist talking about the why dont you call me first, i have a better japanesechicagoan for you. Depends on the date. In tornado alley, right, the tornado hits and then we determine the scale of at that tornado, the f1 it was an f5 and thats my main man. Ted, theodore fujita, the fujita scale. I didnt know that. He was a chicagoan. He was following the Mushroom Cloud from the atomic bomb in japan. He was 16, 17. His work wag so good a dude from the university of chicago saw it, i wonder if that same kind of science and math applies to storms and he came and lived the rest of his life in hyde park and he established a very small, but close japanesechicago community in north kentwood. Yeah, the fujita scale, f came from fujita in the greatest city of earth. And like youre saying, im a black guy whose family could not move off of king drive before 1949. I can go through the census and see my grandpas address, despite his Salary Change and my greatgrandma getting a job, too. Because of what you taught me, because its the greatest city in the country bar none, even with our flaws. When you dont want to put your flaws up against others flaws that you know where your flaws hit. You kind of know where you stand when you want to pull the books out. If you cant process what happened, doomed to repeat it, but its absolutely true and i dont think i mean, every human establishment in the world has problems, has things theyve done wrong and there are lots where youve seen from the book, vietnam a war ii vet trying to move into cicero and 5,000 people go crazy and tear the department down basically and Governor Stevens has to call out the national guard. And the chineseamerican scene i was going to say was just so shocking was 1911 that there was a rumor that leprosy had a broke out in oak park. And the way it broke out, a girl had fallen and hurt her elbow and someone had taken a handkerchief that was freshly laundered on a chinese laundry and put it on the wound and the girl got leprosy and people were rioting outside of chinese restaurants. In a sense, almost part of the human condition, like two arms and two legs, i do believe that. The one problem that we have, we view racism something like, its like gonorrhea, you either have it or you dont. And to me, its more like high Blood Pressure thats a bad example. Feeling that. Its like high Blood Pressure and everyone suffers to some degree, you control it or you dont control it. You view it as part of the human condition recognized and dealt with or ignored and festered and we see the results of that. Absolutely. And also, i think finding the facts in these type of books allow you to give grace to others, too. When they found themselves on that particular journey, a story i love telling. And still today, i guess ive got the same day job. Well see, ive got to tell my wife the decision i make in the next two weeks. But right now im an area operator for com ed and worked myself up as an area operator. I started off as a meter reader, as a kid on the south side, you dont go to Mount Greenwood or bridgeport at night and when the dude tells you to go to bridgeport, you go to bridgeport and ive got to read the meters, 37th and lowe, a lady lives there the first time i was in the back yard, com ed hat, i. D. , car is parked on the corner and the police come and whatever. But if you read the same route every month you get faster at at it. Anybody work for com ed . Its all right. You read the same route every time and you get, you get oh, you get done quicker, right, so i always asked for, hey, give me what i read last month so i went back the next month and she looked out the window and saw me and left it alone and the next month, right, the weather had broken, she had flowers. What i know is you dont step in peoples flowers in the back yard because they are going to call the boss. It was less about her and more about not wanting the boss to get called. So i tiptoe through the flowers to read the meter and she cracked the door, she said thanks. Look whos coming around. And i read the meter its hotter. I wipe my sweat and leaving the yard and crackeded door, do you want some water. Yes, i want some water. She invites me in the kitchen, and she has a meat hook and cleaver on the wall and first im scared. Im like, whats that from . Shes like, well, my grandparents worked for the stock yards and my great grandparent came to chicago to work in the stock yard and my dad, and she got a stack of i. D. s and paychecks and im getting the first person story in history about a subject im fascinated about. Carl sandburg said were the hog butchers the world and i have the firsthand story of the camaraderie and the same lady that called the police on me, a black dude with dreads and how proud her grandfather was had a black friend from the stock yards and thats a connection to history, and when its accurately put and it will leave grace with these type of moments to happen. Shes in my phone right now as my irish granny. Thats great. [applause]. Once you view the totality of history as providence, he doesnt have to just tell black history, i dont have to just tell white history, you can enjoy, take satisfaction. If you go im perfect ar forebearers are perfect. And my grand father paid his dues. Was he bused from texas. They get an idea in their head, people now get an easy and in the past you try to make differences between them. I find the stories unifying. Especially with the chicago book. 365 i have the opening of the erie canal that took place thats the single event that set chicago off. If you wonder why were here now and why the Great Western metropolis didnt become duluth. Its because they had the plat out off the land and they kicked the indians out to dig the canal. Why daniel pope bribed the government to steal 75 miles of land from wisconsin. We were supposed to be chicago, wisconsin, right . Did you look at the original map at the wisconsin territory, the southern border runs the gamut and full lengths of Lake Michigan. No Lake Michigan shoreline. And when it was time to become a state, they added chicago. That they needed Lake Michigan for a port and they took 71 miles of wisconsin and added it to illinois and thats why it stops right whats the name of that, belvedere, isnt that starts with a b, right, connected to rockfort. Beloit. They moved it to beloit and originally it was 67th street. And thats how that story interesting map stories, and wyatts state and lake, original 1830 plat. State and lake was the border. When lyle and heatton, the harp makers. And the salesman in 1901 who would do routes, i get he sold a lot of harps at the time and the streets in chicago were completely random. Michigan avenue, michigan street, michigan place. None was Michigan Avenue where it is now, pine street. He was always writing letters to the papers saying you need a uniform, you need to gather the streets together, et cetera, and he created the whole 800 numbers to the block and making it and it was the most important letters to the editor. He ended up writing a lot of them which is a downside when youre trying to tell a story, sometimes your neat story isnt so neat and thats the Fact Checking and as i dug into it more. Jelly roll morton didnt invent jazz after all, he just told alan that he did. That was one concern that i had doing the book. Now ive got to know to stop digging. At a point. Whats the line that ive got to keep the chicago factor. I didnt want to know that. You just kind of ruined my dinner. Hes a jazz man and when youre trusting the word of a jazz man. The word jazz was first printed in chicago as jas. Theres a lawsuit out of liberty stable blues. The first jazz record wasnt recorded here, it was in new york city. It was the new orleans jazz band. I read the trial, the judge leans forward, a guy in his spats and purple suit and i cant remember his name now and he said, what is the blues and the jazz man says, the blues is jazz and jazz is the blue, 1917 it was and the judge ended up ruling you cant copyright liberty stable blue, the judge trying to deal with it, he said no one created it so no one owns it. So it wasnt the ruling that stayed. Its the number of legal rulings because they have the exact date on it and i spoke to the guy who 50 years ago sued the Cook County Health department to be allowed to be into his wifes delivery. There was a rule theyd gone through lamaze, so you know, the whole point was [phone ringing] my mother. And i talked to him and he had to be the kicker, even though he won when the next guy wanted to see his wife deliver, the judge ruled, no, no, it was just one case. Every victory, there tends to be a lot of backsliding as well. Nothing is clean, nothing is simple and complicated in shades of gray and rare where you get one moment where the thing really happens. Absolutely. Again, having a point, a date to start with, a lot of times where i get a lot of my content from, when i was doing tik tok for fun it was just what story do i want to tell. Thats how i dated my wife. When i didnt have any money, if i had half a tank of gas, i could show her where Gladys Knight stayed and then the library, that is where Richard Wright wrote. And the rosen wall a great example of africanamerican and jewishamerican connection and drive her around the block. A full block of city lots and it wouldnt be there without a cool guy, julius rosenwall, right . So just having one date fact on a date can lead you to so many Different Things and a lot of times, it leads to a better understanding. Now that tik tokking is sort of my job and everybody expects me to have a new tik tok every single day even though i have seven kids and a wife and a job. And sometimes i dont know what im going to put on the date, but what on the 15th. Ill see what happened in history on september 15th through the years. And sometimes pick a date and read a newspaper september 15th, 1933, most the time something funny popped up and tell the story or get that one moment that you fish out. Theres always something and you have to sort keep pulling the thread. One thing im proud of, january 3rd. January 3rd, you know, im kind of searching for things that happened and theres something online that says january 3rd, 1974, bob dylan gives his first concert after his motorcycle accident in chicago. Thats a fact, thats not a story and im looking through and the concert and because the set list is online and song theres one song with an asterisk, forever young world debut. Well, thats going more interesting. So i pull the tribune review and god bless the tribune, they tend the Classical Music critic to few him. And he slams his voice and his harmonica playing and word choice and zeros in on one song for particular scorn for its unaccustomed sub junctive case may you be forever young. Then i get to put my editorial thing, he ends this, you know, because he ends the review with make with it what you will. And i said, well, 75 artists from joan baez to beyonce managed to record it and gave him a nobel prize and its more of a story and an art. That ticktock is nice. January 3rd. Thats how it goes. January 1st, 1920, the beginning of the raid at a restaurant, and the guy is going to pay his bill and the cashier says, the scram, the cops are here. They drag him in and repressive thing, january 2nd, 1900 reversal of the Chicago River, but the beauty when you go back usually as much as you get, end. Because i went to the original, you know, daily news stories, you see that we were st. Louis was going to stop us, they didnt want a ceremony and theyre gathered with the shovels and see two figures running at midnight toward them. Are they lawyers from st. Louis . No, no, just two reporters, hadnt told the press and big the final pieces. Well stop for a second for questions, but you cant tell the you cant drop the reversal of the Chicago River and not tell the joke that goes along with it. All right. So we reversed the Chicago River and they did sue, right, they ended up losing. We were allowed to keep the Chicago Rivers flow towards the Mississippi River which goes down to absolutely and thats okay, they decided to bottle it up and ship it to chicago and sell it to us and they call it budweiser. [laughter]. [applause] we do want to leave room for questions, and i guess its a great time now and a couple of strategic microphones around if anybody has questions. You know, in a book like that, so, morgan park as a neighborhood is one of the last to annex into the city, right, they held out for a little while. Kind of like edison park held out. 1919 toward the end of world war i. 1934 theres a good number of africanamerican students at the school and morgan park kids arent happy about it so the seniors walk out. This is in the late 1930s. And ed kelly is our mayor and its a thing that cost him kelly had a lot of political power him and pat nash are the true inventors of the democratic machine here in chicago, right. Daley just makes it his own, he makes it better, but ed kelly goes to morgan park and he tells the principal, were not graduating anybody thats not in School Tomorrow and the strike ended that day. They were out for two weeks and he finally got tired of it and he went over it. A that action upset the power base, no, we have got to get him out of here. And thats when we got neely, this will they had daley. I didnt know that for. He and he had gave money for coney island there, and the progress fair as a sop. But he wanted a permanent Amusement Park to the lake front, but he was so corrupt, that they were worried about the money they would lose doing it. He definitely was corrupt. Questions. Yeah, this might sound like a really geeky question, but i write historical fiction for young people and i ask this of kids and other historical fiction authors, if you could time travel and you wouldnt change history and you couldnt get hurt, what moment of chicago history, where would you be a fly on the wall, whether its a chapter or an actual event, what would it be . And the more specific the better, but, yeah. Id love to go to the first ward ball. I learn more and more about him every day. And it just, it was they basically had a big party for the madams and the drug dealers. Its very nice because think of the most robust and rrated thing you could think of and then put it as the colosseum or can i say that, december 2nd, 1943, the splitting of the atom and rico fermi pulling out the cobalt rods to have the First Nuclear first selfcontained man made nuclear reaction. I dont want to screw rutherford or anything like that. But forgot to take a picture so probably would be nice to be there, right. And wouldnt have had to leave the city because it took place right here university of chicago. And in my rendition of it im proud of two things, i ask a question like the obvious geeky question is why did they do it here . If they were worried they would ignite the atmosphere why do this on a College Campus in the middle of a populous city. The answer of course, there was a labor action at the argon where they were building the national lab and the building wasnt done and there was a war on and colombia messed it up because they didnt use the right uranium. The geiger counters are clicking more and slide rules are going and enrico fermi go, oh, its lunchtime. They push the button and go back to the commons and come back an hour later and make history. For me, i guess the event would be when the africanamerican firemen are engine 21 invent the firemans pole. How i tell the story and how it was told to me that we formerly fought fires on horses not fire trucks. And horses need hay, and there was a firefighter asleep on the hay. And told if youre the last dude to respond to the fire, bill, youre fired. And he didnt have time to take the stairs and there was a pole to keep the hay on the loft and it went off and to see the look on his face and he jumps on the pole and takes the pole down and that one moment in history. The captain, there was captain dooley, and his he thought it was genius and told him to take at that wood pole to get it sanded and shellacked it and responded to fires and ended up being the fastest unit to respond to the city for so many years and the Fire Department made it every station had to have one of those poles and during that time. Ones banished chicago, were not sure of that year, most people date it 1875, and a great time to be a immigrant in chicago. And one was john jones, his property, he donated the land for jones commercial and printer he was a tailor. Absolutely. His stop not only a stop underground railroad and i love the characters who dont normally put in chicago like Winston Churchill or custer or something, and to see him on wa bash heavy and the first africanamerican elected to state office in illinois. Why was he elected . Because he had the genius to jump on the fireproof ticket and elected in 1874. What happened in 1871 . The fire. Anyone who says youre antifire, youre getting in. Questions, questions, questions. If there was one myth, other than mrs. Olearys cow that you could erase from the Chicago Historical conversation, what would it be . Thats a tough one, bill. What story well, i was going to say i hate leopold and lowell, i hate that story. Great. Its what myth would i take out. It would have to be when we were talking about the idea of certain groups getting passes. I think i would want people to know just how acidically racist the past and the history is. The terrible burdens that people were faced with when they came here. I have a Group Meeting in 1850, its an early predecessor of the naacp its freed theyre picking the free soil of illinois and theyre in the country where theres still legal slavery and when you read over the speeches, Steven Douglas talked to them and the love of country, the fate that theyre going to be dealt with fairly. The sense that there was this whole back to africa movement, okay, its the solution to take the people we dragged over here back to country and to see that group for centuries on, how people struggled with these burdens that they were put on with dignity with faith, with energy. And i wish everyone knew that and understood how uneven the Playing Field has been. So i try never to talk chicago negative stories, gang stories, that type of stuff. I dont make that type of content, but i do think theres a myth that i see it all the time, right. Super sadly when a child, a school age kid loses his life in Chicago First thing in our message, at least into capones time they didnt kill kids. That would be the myth i would want to eradicate, like, the previous ethnic groups that of all the grandmas, walked them across the street and gave the orphanages money and only engaged with other bad guys that had signed letters of intent and its that myth, thats certainly not the case, that isnt how things worked. So i grow tired of hearing that. So thats why i put the other part of it is, i try not to see it and even answer it in any kind of way. Well, weve been given the high sign so i want to thank you all for coming. Were going to be signing books out in tent and how do they get there from here . You can go back through the same entrance, make a left and right. Its west of here on polk. And this is the only signing event i have scheduled, so this might be it. If i get hit by a bus this afternoon, ive got the copy that he signed. And shamelessly jump in here, i do tours, bronzeville, the stock yard, rogers park. And all we do is point out how good chicago is. And appreciate a follow on my social media platforms and i tell chicago origin stories and history and handle number 6figga underscored dilla or put in chicago historian, pretty sure ill pop up. Thank you, dilla, appreciate it. Our coverage of the printers row continues now. Thank you for joining us today, this is called he had it