28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series
In the roughly 80 years since the Hickman case, not much has changed. We read the descriptions of housing conditions in the poor, Black neighborhoods of Chicago in the 1940s – from caving ceilings to pests. Through our tenant organizing, our canvassing and social investigation in working class areas in Washtenaw, Detroit and Lansing, the GDC has experienced, witnessed, documented all of this + more.
Slumlords today act no differently than David Coleman and Mary Adams did when running 1733 West Washburne where the Hickmans lived: investing in multiple, rundown (therefore cheap) properties to maximize profit; renting in working class areas to poor people, who in this country often are Black; outsourcing maintenance + legal responsibility to avoid getting their hands dirty (or caught red-handed); and finally evicting tenants in order to raise rents on a regular basis.
From the book: “These fellows buy without inspecting and try to milk the building dry as they can … it is a crime … It is too bad there isn’t a law to throw them in jail.”
We read the blatant corruption and racism intrinsic to the legal system – courts, police and prisons. The pigs help landlords evict; tenants have very few legal rights to protect them. Majority white juries decide the fate of mostly Black working class people, sentencing folks to death or something close to death in prison. People in prison, who in amerikkka are 40% Black, are rotting away in mold-infested cells, denied access to healthcare + isolated from their loved ones. Free Krystal!
Banks, real-estate + insurance companies lobby politicians and influence judges so any legal cases against landlords are watered down to basically nothing. While all evidence pointed to Coleman’s guilt in the death of the 4 Hickman children, he got away with a mere $600 fine. However when James Hickman took matters in his own hands and killed Coleman, the cops arrested him immediately.
We remember Sherman Lee Butler, John Zook Jr. & all victims of landlord capitalism.
Landlords, cops and courts are all part of the capitalist class, and will always reap the profits of their system. Under capitalism, its property over people.