History of WSO

The West Side Organization was officially formed by the West Side community members in 1964. It was formed as a brotherhood of unemployed African-American men whose goal was to help one another with their problems in the employment market. WSO is an organization formed and led by underdeveloped community members, to speak and act for their entire community by confronting urban renewal authorities, poverty program officials, police, and other sectors to pursue political power. Prof. Bernard Brown of the University of Chicago states:

"WSO was an attempt on the part of indigenous community leaders to enter the political sector of city life as a group that is representative of a people and a way of life that has not been acknowledged as anything but deviant in its norms and unacceptable in its public image" (83).

African American community was regarded as social and cultural isolate in Chicago’s

political life. William Ellis in his book White Ethics and Black Power; the Emergence

of the West Side Organization argues that some people could even experience culture

shock when they went from a middle-class district of a city to a lower-class black

community, like Chicago’s West Side (116). Usually we think about this feeling when

we move from one country to another, but for some Chicagoans the difference

between the way of being of the whites and the blacks was so large that the term was

justified.

The West Side Organization was an experiment in creating an autonomous polity among

persons who share, not only a common social and physical environment, but who have

experienced its rewards and deprivations (mainly the latter) in the same way- people who

are in the same shape we are. It is an organization for people who are like us, socially

and culturally. WSO has developed a sense for who we are, on the basis of social and

political deprivations and a cultural identity, among a group for whom the racial stigma

of exclusion from society's mainstream is one component within a condition of victimization.

Brown claims that poverty, unemployment, functional illiteracy, economic dependency upon public welfare, criminal background-these are marks of unacceptability for people wanting to participate in the political process. This is the way the social and political system operated in relation to African Americans. WSO can be seen as a challenge to that orientation undertaken by the indigenous poor themselves. The West Side Organization began with one definition of their existence as a group-that they were unemployed African American men, assisted, but not led, by two white consultants and several students, committed to developing some kind of organization to deal with their problems as they perceived them (83).

In the 1960s, the main work areas of the WSO were: finding jobs, welfare, schooling (tutoring) and a community newspaper. Employment was one of the central concerns of WSO in the beginning. Reverend John Crawford stated that "We worked with men that were unemployed...and families that were on public assistance" in reference to WSO's early days. William Ellis says that unemployment among the poor blacks is not simply a matter of finding and keeping jobs. It’s a way of life. Black people experienced oppression by whites, black men were featured as incompetent and foolish and this made them feel inferior and developed low self-esteem. Inhumane treatment by public school teacher or policemen made them worthless. Even as children many American blacks were not likely to hope for anything-achievement, wealth, happiness or long life. The WSO staff had shared this type of life and so were able to comprehend hopelessness of many who need help in finding employment (110). The employment program was conducted by Chester Robinson. He and his assistants surveyed the urban area of Chicago and build up files of companies that have openings. From the summer of 1964 to August 1966 WSO secured more than a thousand jobs for West Side residents and helped them to keep their jobs and fight job discriminations, which could result in the abandonment of work. WSO was successful in finding jobs for some women also through its

employment referral program, and through direct actions taken against employers

who discriminated in hiring.

WSO was also involved in welfare grievances. WSO fought with mistreatment

of the Cook County Department of Public Aid officials. Some Cook County

officials were cruel or indifferent to the poor. A particular incident of such

attitude was called a “welfare grievance.” WSO formed a "union" of welfare

recipients, attempted some experiments in committee organization, dispersed

their leadership to other communities within the community to form “locals.”

In first two years of operation WSO had five “Welfare Union locals”, and handled

more than a thousand successful grievances (Ellis 109). Their actions developed

from crude confrontations of the sit-in variety to a well- developed method of

providing representation and advocacy, by poor black men, for poor black women

and children, in the offices of caseworkers, supervisors, and other officials.

Like unemployment, being on welfare is a way of life of some residents of the West Side. Rev. John Crawford said that the “Department of Public Aid was like God at that time." Rev. Crawford in the article “Faith and activism on the West Side” recalled one instance where a single mother with several children was living in a dilapidated West Side shanty that had flooded several feet and had "dead rats floating in the water." The woman was receiving welfare but was afraid to leave. Many other families lived in poor living conditions and were afraid to leave, Crawford explained, because the Illinois Department of Public Aid at the time commonly rescinded financial assistance if a resident left an uninhabitable home without it being investigated by an inspector. In the single mom's case, an investigation did not occur until days later, but the WSO

intervened and relocated the woman and her children.

WSO had offered evening education: tutoring for school children, literary classes for

adults and typing class for all ages. WSO leaders have always encouraged residents

to take advantages of the training programs of US Department of Labor and other

government agencies. WSO published biweekly newspaper – the Torch. It

concentrated on community news and the most important news of the Chicago

and nation’s freedom movements. Many people come to get assistance with basic

and practical needs, such as how to seek medical treatment when they can’t afford it, etc.

Structure

WSO had a Board of Directors with Archie Hargraves as President, Executive Director-

Chester Robinson, Director of the Welfare Union-John Crawford, other subordinate

positions (they are white people): editor of the Torch-Patricia Stock, chaplain-Robert

torm. The organization is not really hierarchical in structure. Decisions of Executive

Director have been frequently disputed by others. Further, some members of the executive staff had important connections outside the organization that enhanced their position in WSO.

The position of key white members is difficult to explain. They are at once trusted collaborators, but at the same time their motives and feelings are viewed with a suspicion by others because of historical issues. However, both black and whites were aware that a certain amount of suspicion is unavoidable, therefore, the relationship was healthy, even though strained (Ellis 121).

Meetings

WSO hold two kinds of meetings: open to the community, held every Wednesday and special meetings held to discuss matters of great urgency. Fifty to a hundred neighborhood residents usually attended

the regular Wednesday meetings, run by John Crawford, head of Welfare

Union, who customarily begun by leading

the group in a few freedom songs. WSO leaders attended many

meetings with other black leaders in Chicago. They sat in the

decision-making councils that organized the marches sponsored

by Martin Luther King.

Dr. King in Chicago

Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference came

to Chicago in the summer of 1966 to combat housing segregation

and inequality in black and white neighborhoods. At the time, King

moved his family into a rundown North Lawndale apartment to

highlight the issue. While King was in Chicago, the SCLC asked

WSO members to participate in their effort, and Crawford

volunteered as a bodyguard whenever King visited the West Side.

He and other WSO members also walked in the Marquette Park

open-housing march, when demonstrators, including Dr. King, were

hit with rocks, bricks, and bottles.

King would later tell reporters about the Chicago march: "I have seen

many demonstrations in the South, but I have never seen anything so hostile and so hateful as I've seen here today."

Recent years of WSO

Throughout the 1970s and '80s, the West Side Organization remained active in the community, but the deaths and departures of original members ushered in a new generation. Crawford maintains that this new group was ill-equipped to carry the torch and did not share the same commitment of their predecessors.

A former inmate himself, Rev. Crawford has remained committed to providing ex-offenders with resources to reintegrate into society.

"If a man has used his hands to cause destruction, to cause a mother to cry, to cause death to the community, those same hands can be constructive in the community," Crawford insists. Now, Rev. John Crawford, Jr. heads FAITH Inc., a nonprofit activist organization in Austin, helping ex-offenders re-acclimate themselves back into the community upon their release from prison.

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References:

Brown, Bernard. "An Empirical Study of Ideology in Formation." Review of Religious Research, 9.2 (1968): 79-87. JSTOR. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.

Crawford, John H. FAITH Inc. Meeting. 17 Jan. 2015.

Ellis, William W. "Activities and Structure of WSO." White Ethics and Black Power; the Emergence of the West Side Organization. Chicago: Aldine Pub., 1969. PDF.

Moroni, Nick. "Faith and Activism on the West Side." Austin Weekly News 30 June 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.