Ron Grossman

Striking firefighters and their families converge on Daley Plaza on Feb. 23, 1980, to push contract demands.

Flashback: Chicago’s first firefighters strike created a battle line between brothers

March 9, 2020 at 5:40 p.m.

Chicago firefighters and paramedics were picketing Engine Co. 85's firehouse on Feb. 22, 1980, when they saw smoke rising nearby. Four grabbed helmets and boots from their cars and ran...

Kenneth Starr arrives at the Capitol on Jan. 27, 2020. As a special investigator searching for Clinton's misdeeds, he said impeachment doesn't require commission of a crime. As Trump's lawyer, he says that it does.

Column: What would it take to get me to vote for Trump’s acquittal?

January 31, 2020 at 6:53 p.m.

I would be a cheerleader for Donald Trump's acquittal ... If you could show me how the "deep state" forged the Government Accountability Office's report that determined that withholding $40,000,000...

Opening day at the George Cleveland Hall branch Chicago Public Library on Jan. 16, 1932. Vivian Harsh is in the center behind the desk. (Chicago Defender/Chicago Public Library)

Flashback: Librarian Vivian Harsh preserved Black history, literature with massive collection

April 13, 2026 at 1:06 p.m.

You won't find a book by Vivian Harsh on a library shelf. Not even in the special collection that bears her name in the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library on...

The remains of barracks for prisoners are shown Dec. 15, 2019, at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, which is now a museum and memorial site.

Column: A lesson for Holocaust Remembrance Day: Anti-Semitism never died — it just lay dormant

January 27, 2020 at 12:00 a.m.

On Jan. 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz extermination camp. They found only a handful of emaciated prisoners; others were on a forced march to Germany in the dead...

The ‘Monuments Men’ of WWII understood why we should not harm Iran’s cultural sites; Trump should too.

January 7, 2020 at 6:59 p.m.

When the U.S. Army invaded Sicily in 1943, Lt. Col. Mason Hammond raced around the island in a beat-up Jeep, intent on preventing its cultural heritage from becoming a casualty...

The Prohibition Research Committee of New York's motorbus "Diogenes" stops in Chicago while on a national tour in search of a "drunkard" who has been reformed by the 18th Amendment, photographed June 11, 1932. At the end of their tour, they concluded that there was no man or family that benefited from Prohibition.

Flashback: As Illinoisans greet the era of legal pot, here’s what happened when the repeal of Prohibition let Chicagoans drink again

May 26, 2022 at 11:26 a.m.

Shortly after noon on Dec. 5, 1933, John Burke, vice president of the Congress Hotel, and H.L. Kaufman, the owner, went down to the hotel's wine cellar. The keys to...

Edwin Krenn, left, and Edith Rockefeller McCormick walk on Michigan Avenue on March 27, 1932, as was their custom for Easter.

Englewood anti-violence group fears it’s lost its Christmas tree, other holiday supplies, cancels party after shipping container relocated

December 19, 2019 at 8:35 a.m.

A blue shipping container that held the fixings for a holiday party for an Englewood community group has disappeared, possibly relocated to a city auto pound, forcing the cancellation of...

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