Week of May 30, 2012 Vol 47 No 10

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Civil Rights Leaders, Clergy Respond to Obamas Position on Same-Sex Marriage

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Chatham-Southeast

Audit Bureau of Circulation

Member

South Shore High School to Become

Selective Enrollment
By Rhonda Gillespie

Chatham Resident Pens Book about Community Organizations

Jahmal Cole is a Chatham community activist who was inspired to write a book because of his genuine concern for issues effecting Chatham. According to Cole, The Torch of Decency, Rekindling the Spirit of Civic Organizations reveals the purpose of local community groups such as Greater Chatham Alliance, Chatham Avalon Park Community Council and Chesterfield Community Council and why it is important to join them. Cole, 28 is currently the membership chairman for Greater Chatham Alliance where he has been a member for more than three years. Research for the book took over six months and 15 interviews with longtime Chatham residents, Cole said. It took him three months to write it. On Saturday mornings, I would sit down and write at a different park in Chatham, he told the Chicago Citizen. This helped draw up inspiration. Cole moved to Chatham only five years ago in 2007 but says that does not hinder his concern for the community.
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By Thelma Sardin

Ald. Michelle Harris (8th), above, who grew up in the South Shore area and attended then-Chicago Vocational High School, feels students shouldnt have to travel across town to get a quality education. Photo by Rhonda Gillespie.

They faced an uphill battle to bring a new high school to the South Shore community that would be attractive to neighborhood students. But last fall the South Shore International High School Planning Committee reveled in the opening of the school, starting only with a freshman class in a brand new $94 million state-of-the-art building.
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Jahmal Cole is a Chatham resident, author and community activist that is passionate about the communitys future. (Photo Courtesy of Jahmal Cole)

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Calendar JazznOn the South Side:

MYDee Alexander NEIGHBORHOOD Page 6 n SEE MORE

Entertainment
The 2012 ESSENCE Music Festival Expands To 4 Days
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News
10 Killed, 40+ Injured in

Chicago over Long Weekend

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www.thechicagocitizen.com 47 years of serving the Black community

8 / CITIZEN Chatham Southeast / Week of May 30, 2012

South Shore High School to Become Selective...

However, the committee, supported by Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) and community residents like Henry English, would not rest on its laurels. It wanted more for the school and the surrounding community. The committee wanted SSIHS to be a selective enrollment school, the only one on the Southeast Side of town. Our goal is to help our new school build the capacity it needs to launch a robust, world class sustainable international program for our children, said English, who is president of the planning committee. The Chicago Board of Education approved to have SSIHS become a selective enrollment school during its May 23 meeting. The chief executive officer of the citys public schools said the board was helping to fill a demand on the Southeast Side. This is a push to have in South Shore a great institutional icon, Ald. Harris told the Chicago Citizen regarding the move to have the school become Selective Enrollment. We need to have our own selective enrollment program so that that the top tier of kids dont have to leave our community, go to the Far South Side to Gwendolyn Brooks (or) downtown. Well have that jewel right here on the Southeast Side. For Harris, who grew up in the South Shore area and attended then-Chicago Vocational High School, feels students shouldnt have to travel across town to get a quality education. She explained that the current academic standing of South Shore high school including the programs being phased out is sub-par but having an opportunity to pick students for the school who are already academically on the ball would be a boost for the community. The alderman added that pushing for selective enrollment was not about shutting the neighborhood kids out and making a quality education inaccessible to them. She said the South Shore area needed to have an alternative for students to not have to travel so far from home to

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attend other selective enrollment schools. Our children arent staying in the community (to go to high school), theyre leaving, she said. Theyre travelling almost two hours away from (their) community. Why, when they could have this great institutional model in their own back door? The board also approved a boundary change for SSIHS which will make Chicago Vocational Career Academy the new neighborhood school for students who live in the SSIHS attendance area. CPS said it is pushing to increase the academic standings at CVCA, including forging partnerships with the City Colleges of Chicago to have some of the high schools course work be worth CCC credit. Further, the school was currently awarded a $75 million grant for capital improvements. Were committed to working with communities in every corner of the city to ensure all students and families have access to high quality educational options in their neighborhood, said Jean-Claude Brizard, head of CPS.

Chatham Resident Pens Book about...

You cant choose where youre born but you can choose where you want to make a difference, said Cole who was born in Waukegan. The books title, The Torch of Decency, Rekindling the Spirit of Civic Organizations holds special meaning to the author. The Torch shines bright and that represents the Pride of the people, he explained. The same pride that made Chatham the center of black middle class living. That torch now needs to be passed down to the next generation of community leaders. The community advocate believes that the spirit of community organizations needs to be rekindled. Cole says residents should become involved with businesses of the community. Just like we wouldnt expect big city government to mow our lawns or shovel the snow from the fronts of our businesses, we shouldnt expect them to choose which businesses or which schools belong in our community, he said. Those decisions can best be determined by the people that live in the community. Cole doesnt believe Chatham is a mecca for successful African Americans as it once was; however he says the community has the ingenuity to rebuild itself. We have the talent, people, and skills but were locked into what we used to be, he said. What made us wonderful is holding us back. The same pride, strength, and residential stability, that represents the TORCH, thats now working against Chatham residents. The children that were blessed to come out of Chatham homes and nuclear families were launched far out into the world because their parents sacrificed and wanted better for their children. Guess what, children grow up and want something different. Cole says he has interviewed many seniors whose children have attended stellar universities but very few return to Chatham and as a result the talent and creativity that Chatham helped create flourishes elsewhere. The torch of values that was passed down is shining bright in other parts of the country, Cole said. The new residents that move to Chatham now might not have the same values that Chatham residents expect them to have they saw a for rent sign and moved in. I think this has many Chatham

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residents concerned so they fall back into talking about memories of what Chatham used to be. Memories are only good if you can get younger folks to embrace the vision of neighborliness and striving for better. Cole says what he loves most about Chatham is that its actually a community. Theres a big difference between a neighborhood and a community, he told the Chicago Citizen. A community works together to produce tangible results. I enjoy
Jahmal Cole told the Chicago Citizen that the purpose of his book is to restore the safety and security of the community, while providing readers with solutions and ways to rekindle the community pride that was once Chathams claim to fame. (Photo Courtesy of Jahmal Cole)

the Chatham residents. An opportunity I see for Chatham is our elders embracing the young people and becoming role models. The world is different now, there are more distractions. Cole told the Chicago Citizen that the purpose of his book is to restore the safety and security of the community, while providing readers with solutions and ways to rekindle the community pride that was once Chathams claim to fame. Assuming responsibility for the preservation of the acclaimed accomplishments of Chathams previous generations is a torch of decency that all should carry, he said. Coles book is available online through Amazon.com or www.rolemodelmovement.com. Chatham residents can pick up the book at Chatham Foods located at 327 E. 79th St.
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