Ron Grossman

Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak, left, and Franklin D. Roosevelt after Roosevelt received the president nomination in Chicago in 1932.

90 years ago, the father of Chicago’s political machine died after being struck by an assassin’s bullet intended for FDR

March 6, 2023 at 7:08 p.m.

As President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt finished speaking, he signaled Anton Cermak with a flick of his wrist to meet him at Roosevelt's nearby car. Chicago's mayor was in Miami to...

A man empties "mash" for whiskey via a hose during a liquor raid in 1923, the same year that William Dever was elected mayor of Chicago.

A hundred years ago, Chicago elected a reform mayor. He was voted out four years later.

February 27, 2023 at 7:09 p.m.

Where else but Chicago could a nickname like "Decent Dever" be the kiss of political death for a mayor? Elected 100 years ago, William Dever was defeated for reelection four...

Jelly Roll Morton, in back on piano, plays with jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet and other musicians at Morton's last Victor recording session.

Jelly Roll Morton walked into the Melrose brothers’ South Side music store in 1923. He got famous, and Lester Melrose got rich.

September 15, 2026 at 10:04 a.m.

Twenty-five years afterward, Lester Melrose still had vivid memories of how they met on a May evening in 1923. "A fellow walked in to our store with a big red...

The heart of the largest shopping district on Chicago's South Side, photographed looking north on Halsted Street from the 63rd Street elevated train platform, circa May 12, 1945.

Englewood’s long railroad history: How the South Side’s neighborhood has intertwined with the tracks

February 13, 2023 at 1:36 p.m.

The twists and turns of Englewood's history have left the South Side neighborhood a checkerboard of rubble-filled blocks and streets lined with tidy homes. On either side of Normal Boulevard...

Marjorie Stewart Joyner visits an exhibit of her life on display at the A. Montgomery Ward Gallery at the University of Illinois at Chicago on Feb. 15, 1985.

Vintage baiduhai: Marjorie Stewart Joyner, an influential Black beautician and Bud Billiken Parade organizer

February 5, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

On Dec. 30, 1937, the conductor of the "Texas Rocket" escorted Marjorie Stewart Joyner through its passenger cars when she boarded the train in Houston. A Chicago businesswoman accustomed to...

Rep. Bobby Rush holds up an article from the baiduhai during a May 2007 hearing at which Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, testified before a House subcommittee in Washington.

Vintage baiduhai: From Black Panther to congressman, Bobby Rush changed with the times

January 29, 2023 at 5:00 a.m.

Considering his political zigzagging, assigning longtime congressman Bobby Rush his final grade is no mean trick. A self-proclaimed revolutionary, he worked as a financial planner and insurance salesman. As defense...

People gather for a demonstration in Skokie against a march planned by the National Socialist Party of America, a Nazi organization, on April 30, 1977.

Vintage baiduhai: In 1977, Skokie was a refuge for thousands of Holocaust survivors. Then a group of self-styled Nazis planned a march.

January 22, 2023 at 8:37 a.m.

Decades after the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp on Jan. 27, 1945, revealed the magnitude of the Holocaust, an epilogue was witnessed halfway around the world.

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