race

Hitting Home

“I was starting to grow up and see things the way my parents were seeing them.” Transcript for Hitting Home The school I went to in Detroit was what they say now was integrated. When I came here to Gary, there was an East Pulaski and a West Pulaski. East Pulaski was for my people, […]

Lives That Are Totally Alien

“The use of the car, I think, has dramatically changed the way people live.” Transcript for Lives That Are Totally Alien It used to be that people could either walk to downtown Gary or take a bus and the car was not as prevalent as it became later on, but now it’s a car to […]

Just Got the Impression

“All they saw was the violence. They did not see the peace. They did not see the change.” Transcript for Just Got the Impression I grew up in the Tolleston area of Gary which was, at the time, very Germanic and some Polish. I went to St. John’s Lutheran Church which was the first church […]

Vulnerability Is Power

“If you can find security in where you are, then you can open up your ability to be vulnerable.” Produced by intern Marcus Boas. Vulnerability Is Power I started to understand during my time here…and I found to be effective that, because people would do ignorant things it did not mean that it should prompt […]

You’re Not White

“It was like something switched in my head…” Edited by Thu Nguyen. Transcript for You’re Not White When I look back at a lot of things, I’m viewing them through a different lens, you know, and so I’m trying to absorb everything I can from those vivid memories and so I appreciate everything–the good and […]

Double Whammy

“Now, we talked about the white flight; we didn’t talk about what really made it worse in Gary.” Double Whammy is part of our Flight Paths initiative. Double Whammy So the white flight in Gary—there are differing viewpoints as to what caused that and what fueled it. And I think the popular one, primarily by […]

Felt a Lot of Pride

“I was thinking black power was a good thing.” Produced by Rebecca Werner with interviews recorded by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. www.storycorps.org Felt a Lot of Pride I was born in Terre […]

A Well-Kept Secret

“If you don’t have access to the information, you don’t know what your potential is.” Produced by Reagan Skaggs. Transcript for A Well-Kept Secret I remember going to Pulaski. Pulaski was a middle school back then. Seventh grade, we had a speech teacher. She introduced us to black poets—black poetry—and all of us kids was […]