Burial Rights
Mount Hope Cemetery has served the South Side for over a century. Now, amid a devastating COVID-19 surge and a racially charged clash over funeral processions, it’s become a lightning rod.
Contributors: Bryan Smith
When COVID Came to Cook County Jail
At the peak of the pandemic, the crowded city within a city became a top hot spot. Facing cases on a mass scale, officials and doctors had to leap into action without a playbook. This is the story of how they beat back the outbreak — and how close they came to catastrophe.
Evanston’s Road to Reparations
Compensating African Americans for the wrongs of history has been a political nonstarter for decades. Then, last November, one Chicago suburb made it a reality.
The Man Who’s Taking on Boeing
The families of the 157 people who died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 are consumed by grief. Attorney Bob Clifford wants to make the aviation giant pay for their pain.
Stuck on the South Side
Bashir Salahuddin may have left Chicago for Hollywood, but he’s found success by tapping the humor of his old neighborhood.
The Double Triple
A triple transplant — heart, liver, kidney — is an incredibly rare procedure. Up until recently, only 15 had ever been performed. Then, over a 48-hour stretch, UChicago Medicine did two back to back.
The Ghosts of Flight 191
Judith and Sheldon Wax were local literary figures — she an author, he a top editor at Playboy. Forty years ago this month, they and 269 other people boarded a plane to Los Angeles. What happened next haunts Chicago to this day.
The Accidental Activist
Last summer, after Andrea Thome and her neighbors were plunged into a public health nightmare, she faced a choice: Wait for something to change, or bring the fight.
Bill Kurtis
Chicago’s iconic newsman opens up about a life of extraordinary triumphs, profound pain, and never-ending reinvention.
The Legend of Johnny Twist
Chicago’s senior writer makes a curious musical discovery on the South Side.