This fall, student research, photos and reflections about the Black
Metropolis are brought to life in the new scholarly work, The Way They
Saw It: The Changing Face of Bronzeville (Dorrance Publishing Company).
The Way They Saw It builds on Horace Clayton and St. Clair Drake’s
landmark study of the neighborhood, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro
Life in a Northern City, published in 1945.
The Black Metropolis Project, a long-term collaboration between
Professor Ted Manley (Sociology) and the Steans Center, focuses on the
transformation of Bronzeville. The Project and They Way They Saw It are
prominently concerned with a different kind of transformation, the kind
that happens when students are engaged in a service learning project that
transforms their perceptions of a subject and a neighborhood. The Black
Metropolis Project embodies a service learning model focused on intensive
community-based research conducted by students—research that draws
from sociology, history, economics, the arts and many other disciplines.
Three DePaul students who contributed to the book shared thoughts about
this experience and what it meant to their academic life at the university.
Doreen Hopkins
Native to the South Side, Doreen Hopkins was no newcomer to Chicago
when she first took a class on the Black Metropolis. “The Project gave us a
different lens to look at the things we saw. DePaul is full of commuter
students and transfer students—many of whom have grown up in Chicago.
We take trains and buses—we see neighborhoods changing every day. What
this experience gave me was a different pair of glasses to look at the city.
Now, when I see a billboard, or a housing development, or a new Starbucks,
I ask different questions about that neighborhood. You can’t go out and
collect data and think ‘That was just for class,’ because we would see evidence of the same thing when we went home.”
Hopkins, who graduated from DePaul in 2001
and majored in Psychology, now works for the McNair
Scholars program at DePaul. She adds that learning
about Bronzeville through this project was significantly
different than being in a classroom. “When you are in
a classroom, you expect lectures, facts,” she says. “You
are supposed to learn material and take a test. This class
made everything current. I remember how we used to
go out on Saturday mornings to do field work—walk the
street and record what we saw on a pad of paper. If there
was an empty parking lot, we would estimate the address
for that. From week to week, we might even see the
neighborhood changing. It was happening right in front
of us. At the same time, we talked with residents who
wanted to share their story. They were excited to see us.”
Matthew Murphy
Matthew Murphy, who graduated from DePaul with
a marketing degree last spring, vividly recalls taking
digital pictures in Bronzeville of landmarks, changing
landscapes, housing and businesses.
Just as indelible as those photos, he says, is the
way his preconceived images of Bronzeville and the
South Side changed because of this project. “Outside
of going to Sox games, I had never crossed the Dan
Ryan,” says Murphy. “This was a whole different world
for me. On top of that, I never thought I’d go into public
housing units. The first time I went to
Bronzeville, I was kind of scared. It felt
strange walking around with a camera
in what was a new world for me.”
The process of observing and
learning that comes through in
The Way They Saw It was a key part
of the learning process for Murphy.
“I listened, and that really made a
difference in my academic career
at DePaul. It’s easy to treat people as subjects, especially
if you are looking to have them fit specific stereotypes.
But a lot of it was about listening.”
Murphy says The Way They Saw It, like the rest of
this project, provides a “necessary tool” for studying
Bronzeville. “In essence, if you only go by secondary
research, books or statistics from a census, you will
never know firsthand what happened in a community.
To actually be there and think about issues—that was a
great experience.”
Molly Szymanski
Some students who contributed to this book and are
already on a path to working with urban communities say
the project provided them with invaluable experiences.
“This Project solidified my passion for working with urban
populations and the economically disadvantaged. It gave
me knowledge and tools,” says Molly Szymanski, who is
pursuing a master’s in public service at Marquette
University in Milwaukee. Working on the book and
Project not only exposed her to the community—
it allowed her to learn a wide range of skills. “Through
the project, I learned so many skills,” she says, “including
geographic mapping, data entry, qualitative research,
how to conduct interviews, how to organize meetings
at the public library. And, because I was also a teaching
assistant, how to work with students.”
For Szymanski and many other students who
produced this book, the experience had an impact on
how she learns and how she views the city. “Going out
and getting that firsthand data—actually walking the
streets—you are gathering information, not just reading
about what happened. Because of this Project,
I definitely have become a more attuned observer of
my environment. Your city as you see it gets bigger,” she
adds. “It’s not just the four blocks near where you live or
go to school.”
In her senior year at DePaul, Szymanski worked
with Manley and the late
Caleb Dube (right) to select
photos for the project and
collaborate on the development of its editorial content.
The book is dedicated to
Dube, a former visiting
professor in the Department
of Sociology and, later,
principal investigator for the
Black Metropolis Project. The book credits Dube for his
“unfailing commitment, devotion and passion for African
American culture.”
Community as Partner
Manley and students who participated in the Black
Metropolis Project worked closely with a range of
community partners, including several libraries on the
South Side where “town hall” meetings on the project
were held. According to Sherri Ervin, Head Librarian
at the George Cleveland Hall Branch of the Chicago
Public Library, “This Project encouraged people who were
interested in the changes occurring in Bronzeville to come
together. Anything that has a direct impact on community
residents as it relates to housing, education and other key
issues—that’s important for people to know about.”
Meanwhile, this new book not only depicts how
history transforms a community—and the students who
learn about it. Manley says that The Way They Saw It
could also serve as a learning tool for students, schools
and organizations that want to understand a neighborhood’s history and how it is changing. “This book, and the
Black Metropolis Project, demonstrate how students can
learn about a community by documenting the history of
that community. The Way They Saw It shows how service
learning plays a key role in the academic experience of
students—while contributing to what we know about the
Black Metropolis.”