BLACK RESIDENTS ON ONE OF THE BALCONIES OF THE ROBERT TAYLOR HOMES, A LOW INCOME HIGHRISE APARTMENT BUILDING IN CHICAGO. IT IS A COMPLEX OF 28 BUILDINGS LOCATED BETWEEN THE 3900 AND 5400 BLOCKS ON STATE STREET WITH 4,312 APARTMENTS HOUSING 25,220 PERSONS. A GOAL OF MANY RESIDENTS IS TO FIND A JOB THAT PAYS ENOUGH FOR THEM TO REACH MIDDLE CLASS STATUS AND MOVE. MEDIAN BLACK INCOME FROM 1960 TO 1970 INCREASED FROM $4,700 TO $7,883 BUT WAS STILL $3,603 BELOW MEDIAN WHITE INCOME

Featured on PDR in the collection John H. White’s Photographs of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA (1973–74)

It’s hard not to read John H. White’s DOCUMERICA series as a love letter to Black Chicago. Whether capturing protesters or checkers players, concerts or chores, White’s work feels animated by a wonder and curiosity for the great breadth of stories and characters he encountered while exploring his adopted home city — “life”, as he put it in the captions to several of his images, “in all its seasons”.