Column: A memory from 1968, when history came knocking
Half a century ago, I saw history just outside my front door, though I didn't immediately recognize it. What I could all too clearly see was that police were flaying...
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The whole world was watching: How the Tribune reported the 1968 Democratic convention
Fifty summers ago, a mule train got caught in a human traffic jam on Michigan Avenue. The mule train bore a delegation of poor people headed for Chicago's International Amphitheatre,...
Why do I love antique malls? They’re the Museum of Ordinary Folks
When my wife and I are on the road, the shortest line between any two points runs through an antique mall. Not an antique shop, mind you. Their range is...
The poetry of a summer stroll down Division Street
Walking down Division Street on a recent summer day, I savored the memory of how I’d first found my way there. As a teenager, I was a klutz on a...
Some perspective on Trump’s taunts: Iran and the West have a long and tumultuous history
With Iran and the U.S. bolstering their threats and counterthreats with historical footnotes, a quickie course in Iran 101 may be in order. For impatient readers, here’s the bottom line:...
The orphan train: A noble idea that went off the rails
Harold Williams was raised in Chicago, spoke only Polish until he started school and shared his foster parents' home with a little, blond playmate. In a Tribune interview decades later,...
Think about the summer of 1968 as you watch the progress of 50 years evaporate
From the perspective of Chicago’s streets, the old guard seemed on the run in the summer of 1968. My students were dashing off to anti-war protests, and in the face...
A year later, still thinking about a stranger met on a train
A chance encounter on a train invariably leaves me with an afterimage I never get from meeting someone on an airplane. Maybe that’s because sunlight streaming through a passenger-car window...
The Young Lords: How a street gang turned to community activism
At midnight on May 15, 1969, a group of about 20 people marched into the administration building of McCormick Theological Seminary, announced themselves as the Young Lords, and demanded $601,000...
Female players hit a home run for wartime baseball — but were seen, rarely heard
In 1943, baseball players were being drafted, gasoline was rationed and P.K. Wrigley was worried. Could the ballpark bearing his family's name still draw Cubs fans? If World War II...