“The Tenement” 1967 South Side of Chicago documentary, CBS Special Report, 40 minutes, b&w. (Note: color version exists, but this print is B&W).

This program focuses on the lives of nine families living in a dilapidated tenement on Chicago’s south side in 1966. It includes interviews with Chicago residents, including those who lived at 3823 South Ellis Street prior to their eviction. Program highlights depict the following: a mother and newborn leave Cook County Hospital; Georgia Johnson, a tenant for fifteen years; a mother washes for a family of twelve; an eleven-year-old cares for younger siblings; members of “The Four Corners” gang; children play in a vacant lot; the tenement at 10:00 pm; church service; a neighborhood fire; high school drop-outs; a tenant’s funeral; and exodus of tenants before the building is demolished.

“The Tenement” (1967) is a documentary portrait of the residents of a dilapidated apartment building on the South Side of Chicago and their struggles with poverty, limited opportunities, and the promise of urban renewal.

Summary:

0:00-0:46: The film is set at 3823 South Ellis on the South Side of Chicago, built in 1901. Since 1945, only Black residents have lived there. Mrs. Georgia Johnson (Apartment 1 North) recalls that when she moved in 10 years ago, the building was beautiful, but it began deteriorating after changing ownership in 1962.

0:46-1:59: The apartments have 5-6 rooms and rent for $105-$110 a month. Of the nine families living there, five are headed by single mothers. Two families are headed by fathers: Wilburn Floyd (steel mill worker) and Bill Staples (Korean War veteran, electronics factory worker). Jack Beckwith is unemployed.

1:59-2:06: In 1966, the tenants paid $11,700 in rent to the F.W. Harsh Jr. Realty Company.

2:06-3:10: The days begin early. A resident discusses the lack of willpower and purpose in the community, with people just “dreaming.”

3:10-4:02: Mrs. Georgia Johnson discusses her faith and routine, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to pray and read scripture, believing knowledge of God would have saved her marriage.

4:02-4:43: Mrs. Thelma Barber (Apartment 3 South), a widow, does the washing for 12 people. She reflects that she “never was a little girl,” starting to cook at age 7 and becoming a mother at 14.

4:43-6:41: An 11-year-old child in Apartment 4 North is left to care for eight other children while the mother is away and the father is at work. She describes her duties (sweeping, washing, watching kids) and expresses feeling like she’s the only one doing anything. She doesn’t look forward to a new day because “nothing happen” and “everyone is moving out.”

6:47-7:16: Progress is seen in the distance with urban renewal in the Oakland Square area, two blocks away. The view from 3823 South Ellis shows this “progress.”

7:16-8:11: Mr. and Mrs. Peter Muckle, who own the house next door, complain that tenants from the tenement throw garbage out of the windows onto their lawn and house. A child in the tenement admits to tossing things out the window just “to be tossing, nothing else to do.”

8:11-9:12: The children look forward to the arrival of Chico Bindo, who earns a living collecting rags and junk. The children work for pennies and his company.

9:12-10:48: Residents spend time sitting on front porches, watching who goes in and out. A mother reflects that she never gets around to taking her kids to the museum; most haven’t been past 63rd Street. They spend time indoors just watching TV. Life is a tedious cycle: “it’s the same thing we did yesterday and the day before that.”

10:48-12:27: The mailman brings welfare checks to five of the nine families. Mothers on welfare feel it’s the “only thing they can do,” providing them time to be home, keep the kids clean, and read to them. A widow expresses the “real bad feeling” of being unable to afford shoes or clothes when her children need them.

12:28-13:22: Children play in a vacant lot near the tenement.

13:22-14:50: Residents share their dreams of owning a home: a dining room, a sun porch, a recreation center, two built-in TVs, and a place where “nobody living in there but me and my family.” Thelma Barber (widow) discusses the crucial role a father plays in being a confidant and disciplinarian, someone children can talk to about “school and about having children.”

15:37-17:34: The Moor and Johnson families share dinner time. Mrs. Johnson tells her children they can “always… come to m.m.” with any problem.

17:34-19:02: Residents stay up late watching the late show on TV, but one acknowledges, “it looks like it a pretty wonderful world… it’s not the world I’m living in though.” Sleep is often difficult due to noise from people outside keeping up “so much noise.”

19:02-21:26: Most adults were born in rural South, moving to Chicago’s South Side for a better way of life. They came poor and uneducated, but their hopes were met with high rents, segregated slums, and the reality that “the poor pay more.” They found that easy credit houses charged double the value for goods, and missing one payment led to a wage assignment.

21:26-22:47: Women experience isolation in the North, missing relatives or someone to talk to. Families face overcrowding and not enough money. One father says the slightest illness or expense “unbalanced the cart and once the cart is tipped and the apples began to roll out.”

22:47-23:43: The system is rigged: fathers of some children found their families could only be helped by the welfare department if they left home or died. One mother states she’s given up on dreams or longing for a husband, devoting all her time to her children, saying her “dream is slowly began to fade away.”

23:43-24:48: The people in the tenement take life “as it comes.” They don’t belong to civil rights groups and haven’t been reached by the War on Poverty. Some feel trapped and overwhelmed, with one mother admitting she sometimes feels the need to just run away.

24:48-29:22: September 7th is the opening day of Donahue Elementary School. Mothers express hope for their children to get a good education. One mother hopes her daughters will have education to “fall back on” if their marriage fails. A kindergarten teacher reports that many children don’t even know their own first names, only nicknames, and that severely handicapped readers have little chance of getting past their 16th birthday.

29:22-29:55: By Fall, destruction for urban renewal had moved to the tenement’s threshold. Urban Renewal Commissioner Lewis Hill states the site will be part of the “rebuilding program” with new apartments and tot lots.

29:55-31:07: Eviction is imminent. The tenants are told the building was sold to the Chicago Housing Authority and they must move. One tenant is offered public housing, but she feels the projects are “just like taking one big slum and sit it in another slum.” She feels her “whole life had me trapped.”

31:13-33:01: December 1966. The residents celebrate Christmas, with singing and some small joy. One mother went out for the first time in years to the Club Algiers for a floor show and was thrilled “just like a child.”

33:02-34:37: In February 1967, Mrs. Georgia Johnson is one of the first original tenants to move out. She is happy for the better, cleaner place (with churches nearby), but sad to leave the place where her children were born, noting her 8-year-old “just love his little friends he feel like he lost.”

34:37-36:31: Other families are still waiting to move, expressing hope for a good place to live, believing things couldn’t get much worse. They acknowledge that progress takes time, hoping they can “keep moving forward” despite the failures and “dismal things.” The film ends with a resident singing a prayer.