Working with professors of Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) and others in the educational community of Chicago I have participated in, helped host, and created and demonstrated educational materials for the Building A More Perfect Union: A Citizens’ View of the History and Culture of an African-American Neighborhood project, as endowed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The goals of this project broadly were to facilitate the Bronzeville neighborhood to highlight its rich history.

CHICAGO — It was the second week of December, and Amanda Ullah was counting the minutes to payday so she and her roommate could purchase a Christmas tree for their little apartment, perched above a bar on Chicago’s North Side.

Ullah was 22 at the time, and her younger sister, one of Ullah’s six siblings, had recently moved in with her from Florida.