Chicago presents its new, Chicago Torture Justice Memorial thanks to a $6.8 million donation from the Mellon Foundation. This is one of the eight planned monuments built to “memorialize events, people, and groups that historically have been excluded or underrepresented.”
The memorials in progress will serve as a part of a multitude of donations to the community. As the city also paid a generous $5.5 million from the donations received as a reparation package to John Burge‘s survivors. Of those survivors — approximately 118 citizens — they suffered beating, electrocutions, and suffocation to coerce false confessions to crimes.
Who Exactly Is the Justice Memorial For?
As it stands, the plan to build the monument is a part of the effort to share the “collective story of our people.”
Each monument built is dedicated to a pivotal point in Chicago’s history. The list of upcoming memorials is as follows:
- Chicago Torture Justice Memorial: designed in remembrance of victims of police torture.
- George Washington Monument Intervention: a public art project.
- A Long Walk Home: The #SayHerName: The Rekia Boyd Monument Project.
- Mother Jones: a monument with the Mother Jones Heritage Project (MJHP) to honor Mary Harris’ “Mother” efforts of organizing strikes for laborers.
- Mahalia Jackson monument: lead by the Greater Chatham Initiative (GCI) to commemorate the Black gospel singer with art from Gerald Griffin
- Pilsen Latina Histories: Latina events and disparities in Chicago expressed by lead artist Diana, University of Illinois, Pilsen Arts & Community House staff, plus other groups within Chicago.
- Chicago Race Riots of 1919 Commemoration Project: produced and designed with young artists of Firebird Community Arts Project.
- Early Chicago: multiple dedications, including Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, Kitihawa, and more Native American histories.
The clause behind the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial is to acknowledge the many Black victims subject to Chief Police Burge and his group of rogue cops, frighteningly named “The Midnight Crew.” This continued for years, as mainly black men were targeted by Chicago police from 1972 to 1991. Until Burge was fired from the force in 1993 and convicted of perjury in 2010, the officer was never charged for his crimes against Black citizens until he died in 2018. However, many of the first to report his torture received no help and quickly turned away without help.
“It’s important that we capture that history in a physical way,” says Johnson.
The impact that it is going to have — it is not only educating a generation of how these systems fail and harm people, but we also have the ability to tell our stories with our art. See, when oppressors look to dominate people, they go after their history, their art and their culture. We’re not going to do that in Chicago.
It’s a Process
Unfortunately, the city did not propose a deadline for the memorial when first established. It took nearly a decade since the preparation package was proposed in May 2015 to finally gain enough funding.
In 2021, organizer members were optimistic about “breaking ground” on the memorial. Just years before Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration began a fundraiser for that exact purpose — both efforts did not gain any success.
Now, two mayoral changes later — after past Mayor Lightfoot promised to proceed immediately with the memorial’s construction — residents of the south side expressed doubts. Many are not even familiar with the concept:
If it was going to be a thing — the city surely would have paid for it by now.
It’s good that they actually tell children how terrible the past can be. Because really, if you only hear it by word of mouth instead of looking at a building dedicated to it. It will go though one ear and out the next — I mean, just look at the Black history museums and immigration exhibits. You don’t see others questioning if that really happened.
Written by Brielle R. Buford
Sources:
CBS News: Chicago receives $6.8M grant to fund monument projects
Block Club Chicago: City Promises To Finally Build Chicago Torture Justice Memorial, With Help From Private Donors
Block Club Chicago: Chicago Promised Police Torture Survivors A Memorial. Nearly 6 Years Later, They’re Still Waiting For Funding
wttw: Chicago Officials to Use $6.8M Grant to Build 8 New Monuments, Including Memorial to Torture Survivors
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of risingthermals‘ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Unedited Media‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
