American Millstone (Chicago Tribune, 1985)

Lost Society Infects Cities.   Permanent Underclass May Be Developing.  (9/15/1985)

• Great setbacks occurred in progress on rights
• Old industrial jobs in cities disappear
• 5 million dependent on aid from the state

Roots of underclass found in racism, failed policies.  (9/16/1985)

• Female-headed families big factor
• Today's bias rooted in slavery
• Urban decline -- racial succession
• Neo-conservative black perspective

Everyone pays the price for crime in ghetto.  (9/17/1985)

• Even 'safe' suburbs don't escape crime
• Criminal behavior is reinforced

High school has crime as teacher.  (9/17/1985)

Youth came to society's attention once -- in big way.  (9/17/1985)

For poverty, not even money has been a cure.  (9/18/1985)

• Special aid plans deal with underclass
• No success could match expectations
• Aid to tobacco, dairy farmers unquestioned
• Family breakdown a huge problem
• Mood is for more local solutions

Lost jobs leave legacy of despair.  (9/19/1985)

• Where some may never know work
• Migrants still come, but jobs dissolve
• Pay, pride undercut status of steady job
• Career hopes vanish -- why go to school?
• Incentives fail to lure investment

Schools outclasses in fight with failure.  (9/30/1985)

• Middle class cares little about schools
• Inner-city pupils called hard to teach
• Task force urges preschool programs

Inner-city teaching usually a textbook case of frustration.  (6/16/1985)

Fortress of poverty marks grave of a dream.  (10/1/1985)

• 'Rent's going up, buildings do down'
• 'It's like a prison' for a mother of five
• Whites rejected black neighbors

The road to hell.  For Cabrini-Green, it was paved with good intentions.  (Chicago Tribune Magazine, 3/31/1985)

The family is No. 1 casualty of welfare warfare.  (10/2/1985)

• AFDC payments fail to keep pace
• Blacks also seeking place in the Sunbelt
• Welfare cheating:  myth vs. reality

One family's ordeal -- 28 years of poverty in urban America.  (10/6/1985)

Cycle of poverty, despair born again in delivery room.  (10/7/1985)

North Lawndale blues -- day with the down and out.  (10/8/1985)

Fighting a losing battle to help hopeless.  (10/16/1985)

Sean:  A West Side child.

Futures of 3 men junked in vacant lot.  (10/17/1985)

Another infant without a fighting chance.  (10/18/1985)

School under siege of poverty.  (10/27/1985)

Spinning their wheels at the corner of nowhere.  (10/30/1985)

Parole puts crime back on streets.  (11/11/1985)

Addicts slip out back door of reality.  (11/13/1985)

Lawndale's lots eerily empty, haunted by economy that died.  (11/17/1985)

North Lawndale can't afford a dream.  (11/18/1985)

Community's housing in a state of collapse.  (11/19/1985)

In a nation of riches, a permanent underclass.  (12/1/1985)

Too proud to trade welfare for minimum wage.  (12/1/1985)

Escape is a struggle but some will pay the price.  (12/1/1985)

Churches offer hope, but only for the hopeful.  (12/1/1985)

A system unwilling or unable to respond.  (12/1/1985)

Checks bring basics and a dead-end emptiness.  (12/1/1985)

Courage and brains can grind a millstone into dust.  (12/6/1985)

Related posts:
A New York City (primarily Manhattan) bibliography.  (8/15/2013)
The outer boroughs.  (8/22/2013)
Clearing out the paper files again: The Milwaukee area edition.  (8/1/2014)
A Chicago bibliography of newspaper articles (1985-1988).  (8/9/2014)
A Chicago bibliography (1989).  (8/10/2014)
The 1980s suburban Chicago population boom: A very selective bibliography with line graphs.  (8/20/2014)