How WWI was fought in Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods
In the spring of 1918, it belatedly dawned on Chicagoans that World War I was no longer a battle only between other nations' armies. After four years of fighting, Germany...
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The tense months before Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination
Through the months preceding his assassination on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was haunted by a sense of impending death. He shared that premonition with his aide Andrew...
Even Socrates may have mourned the closing of Toys R Us
In a Christmas season long ago, I found myself in a Toys R Us searching for the year’s most hyped toy. So were other desperate parents, and the staff’s fatigue...
North Korea’s capture of the USS Pueblo added to tensions of 1968
Edward Murphy’s memories of the USS Pueblo are especially poignant and painful this year, as 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of North Korea’s seizure of the American spy ship on...
What the Second Amendment says — and doesn’t say — about guns
Survivors of the massacre at a Parkland, Fla., high school have held vigils, angrily chanting “No more guns!” They’ve demanded that state legislators outlaw the AR-15, the kind of rapid-fire...
The Chicagoans who served in World War I
A century ago, Lt. Arthur Keating, who hailed from Van Buren Street on Chicago’s West Side, led an infantry platoon in a raid on enemy-held trenches in northern France. “Hey...
If he’s questioned, Trump will get the same legal advice as Aunt Goldie. But will he take it?
Let it be duly noted that if President Donald Trump is interviewed by the Justice Department, his lawyers face the same challenge that confronted my brother Bob when he represented...
1923’s ‘epic of the frozen north’ — and the amazing newspaper race to get the story
On April 17, 1923, the residents of Northport, Mich., were astonished by the sight of three haggard figures staggering toward them, across the ice floes of Lake Michigan. As word...
The offensive news coverage that inspired ‘Native Son’
The 1938 murder of Florence Johnson was the kind of lurid story that would vex any newspaper editor. It was a sensational story, full of gruesome details, but one that...
The dream of Martin Luther King Jr. is still alive — but set up more chairs
As I was standing in front of an oversized photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. that was hanging on a Chicago historic site recently, I had this feeling there was...