Chicago Stories

50 years ago, the promising young Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed during a police raid. Hampton's organizing and the outcry after his death helped lead to the election of Harold Washington and Bobby Rush, who was a Panther at the time of the raid. 

In 1919, James Henry Breasted founded the Oriental Instiute with what was at the time "a radical idea," that scholars should look toward the ancient Middle East to understand western civilization. Now, 100 years later, OI is celebrating its past by looking toward its future.

As both of Chicago's airports look toward the future of air travel, here's a look at the ups and downs of Midway's past. When it was the world's busiest airport, Chicagoans would flock to watch airplanes take off and land in the airfield.

Chicago is renowned for its architecture, but a small-scale, domestic building unique to this city often goes unrecognized: the Chicago bungalow. The history of this style of house encompasses the story of Chicago's immigrants and infamous discrimination.

Julius Rosenwald used the fortune he amassed leading Sears to found the Museum of Science and Industry, establish schools for rural African Americans and YMCAs across the country, support newly arrived Jewish immigrants, and more.

One hundred and three years ago, on July 24, 1915, more than 800 people lost their lives in Chicago's deadliest tragedy, when a top-heavy boat rolled onto its side in the Chicago River only twenty feet from the shore. Watch an archival Chicago Stories episode about the Eastland Disaster.

A square mile of the city just upstream from downtown devoted to turning livestock into products that saw 18 million animals in a year at its peak: the Union Stock Yards are almost unimaginable now, but they once epitomized Chicago, and gave us the assembly line and refrigerated rail cars.

The Staple Singers combined the Delta blues of Pops Staples' birthplace with the gospel of his adopted home in Chicago to become international stars and civil rights activists. Hear Bob Dylan and Harry Belafonte reminisce on the Staples and learn their history before Mavis headlines the Chicago Blues Fest.

The name is deceiving: they're not from Harlem, and they definitely didn't travel the globe at first. The Harlem Globetrotters were founded in Chicago by five high school stars and a short Jewish man, and originally played in small town gyms outside the city.

Only eighteen years after the Wright brothers' first flight, Bessie Coleman overcame both racism and sexism to become the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, with the help of the Chicago Defender. But her high-flying career was cut tragically short. 

They have been a tradition in Chicago for over one hundred years, and seemingly everyone has fond memories of going to see them. See some of your favorite Christmas windows and learn how they're put together in this episode of Chicago Stories from 2000.

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were brilliant students from affluent, respected families who had everything going for them – so much so that they felt they had to prove their superiority by murdering a fourteen-year-old boy in the "crime of the century."

A century ago, Mexicans first began settling in Chicago as laborers in the steel mills, packinghouses, and on the railroads. One South Chicago community eventually opened the first Mexican church in the city, first in an old army barracks right before the Depression.

One of Chicago's most iconic emblems came out of an unlikely alliance between a gruff, conservative mayor and a sensuous, progressive artist. Through the mediation of a charming bon vivant architect, they changed the face of public art in America. 

Watch Geoffrey Baer take part in the oldest and longest freshwater sailboat race, as he joins the crew of the Radiance in a journey from Chicago to Mackinac Island. Along the way, discover iconic sights, hear Lake Michigan lore, and learn about the history of the race and region.