The Chicago star., August 16, 1947, Image 1

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
niE CHICAGO
Vol. 2, No. 33
1 EXCLUSIVE [
How city
fell for
rent hoax
See Page 5
Bulletin
WASHINGTON—The Chicago area is way out ahead of
all cities in the county in the number of reni-increase leases
signed, it was disclosed this week by the Office of the
Housing Expeditor.
The figure for the entire country is 519,233. Os this
total, the number in the Chicago area is 251,978!
Life of James Hickman
From sharecrop shack to "Murderers Row"
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Mrs. James Hickman
ll.Se fascists 2 years after V- J Day
See Page 10
Chicago, August 16. 1947 „,aS3Efa» 63
Published
Weekly
. By STAN MACEK
A trail of torment led James W.
Hickman from a share-cropper's
shack in Mississippi to Murderers'
Row in the Cook County Jail.
The story of that journey of an
guish was told to The Chicago Star
this week in an exclusive interview
with Hickman's wife, Anna Mae, 41.
A slight woman scarcely five feet
tall, Mrs. Hickman sat quietly in
the living room of her neat, attrac
tive living room at 7805 S. Kolin av.
and twisted her work-worn hands
in her lap as she told of their strug-
Ass AlTfef lAn* Offices of the Progressive
Party urged that all petitions
for judicial candidate be turned in immediately. Offices
at 187 N. LaSalle, 2nd floor will be open each day, in
cluding Saturday and Sunday up to the deadline at 9:00
a.m. Monday morning, August 18.
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PETITIONS pour in JP?"* I W PF?»,
from the city's beaches Pyp- irmsiii fgf, WF. • -»2L~
(above) and from un
<4>eSS ions, as shown below in Uk .3*'**
the FE-CIO, McCormick H
Works drive. In fact, H ", ' %
tjamm Petitions pour in from
every section of the city, , /A
as Chicago's voters sign . m
up to place the Clean
slate on bal , M
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gle—a fight for a better life for their
children.
* * •
Four of the children will never
benefit from that battle. They are
dead, burned to death in the crumb
ling fire trap that the Hickmans
once called home.
It was their death that lead to
climactic tragedy in the life of
James Hickman, 44-year old steel
worker.
The seeds of the misfortune which
now is crushing the Hickmans was
born in the hill country of northern
Mississippi, where both Hickman
and his wife were reared, the chil
dren of share-croppers.
• • •
NEITHER had much opportunity
for education. The hard, harsh life
of a Negro in the terrorized farm
land of the South, the near-starva
tion, the back-breaking labor all
combined to make education an un
available luxury.
Both Hickman and his wife-to-be,
drawn by tales that conditions for
the Negroes were better on the more
fertile Delta low lands of Mississippi,
fled the hill country life.
Their flight was—almost—in vain.
(See Page 11)