28 Days of Black Liberation 2025 series
Property owner Mary Adams and landlord David Coleman avoided court till the last hearing, then tried passing blame on “irrational” tenants. But the surviving Hickmans and several other tenants all testified that Coleman had threatened to burn the residents out of the building. The all-white jury unanimously condemned the place “for human habitation”, especially emphasizing landlords’ profit-making theory.
Many scams were also revealed in the hearings, involving a few “sub-leases” between Adams, Coleman and a third party; all to evade responsibility and kick out tenants to raise rent.
Slumlord Stewart Beal recently took over management of the big rental complex Arbor One in Ypsilanti, after several units have been condemned as uninhabitable. Beal has promised to fix the place and save the day, following a centuries-old landlord tradition: acquire rundown properties, throw on a paint coat, outsource management to avoid liability and bring home the big $$; while working class renters pay over half our paycheck just to suffer health and safety issues in our homes.
Housing had been a top priority in the South Side’s Black communities and their media for decades. In the three months since November 1946 there had been 751 fires in the heart of Black Chicago, claiming the lives of several children. The threat of fire was constant for tenants living in over-crowded and shoddy apartments in the city’s Black ghetto.
Right after this fire tenant organizers from the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP) came together to offer material support to the Hickmans, and get organized. The newly formed tenants union held a public mass meeting under the tagline “No More Fire Victims!” The packed meeting formed the West Side Tenants Union and adopted three demands to the city, including safety measures and new low cost housing.
