The projects is what we called them when I was a kid growing up in New York City. They were scary. Gang violence. Elevators that didn't work. Ugly to look at least in my opinion. It was a disaster for Chicago and eventually, all of the large public housing projects built in the 1950s and 1960s were torn down. It was backed by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) part of the government plus local Chicago and State of Illinois funding. It built places like Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor Homes which this documentary clip looks at. Other major cities had housing projects that were similar. Government housing we called it. The intention was good as the gentleman in this video explains. But it was segregated housing for sure. 95% black families. Something initially supported by Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders but eventually, all came to see it as a disaster. In part this was caused by Chicagos' inability to maintain the buildings physically. When I visited folks I knew in the New York City projects, we walked up as the elevator never seem to be available. Graffiti was everywhere. Garbage was left outside. Sad. But a part of American history that I felt I should include in my videos. Is it the whole story? No. Was it real for many as this woman expresses it? Yes. As the mother says in the video, she would have preferred to go back to what was called the "slum" where her mother lived, then to continue to live in a Robert Taylor home.
