In 1966, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Chicago’s West Side to protest against discriminatory housing practices. The neighborhood went into an uproar following his assassination in 1968, resulting in numerous riots and looting. “When the West Side Burned” outlines the destruction and struggle to recover.

The city, state and federal governments have allocated millions in funding for anti-violence programs — ones that hire local residents at high risk of being shot or shooting others. 

Forty-eight people were shot across Chicago over the weekend, including a 2-year-old girl, a 13-year-old boy and two police officers, as the city continues to outpace last year’s shooting and homicide totals so far in 2021.

As gangs were targeted by police and federal authorities using anti-racketeering laws from the 1970s onward, many gang leaders were incarcerated in federal prisons. That left behind a more fractured and anarchic gang culture, say gang experts.