(iPoster) Structural Violence and Radical Resistance in 20th Century Chicago

• In Event: Poster Session: Politics and History

Abstract

One in every three Americans has a family member that was jailed or incarcerated. The US carceral system, which disproportionately impacts Black and Latino communities, can be understood as a larger strategy of governance rooted in policing, surveillance, incarceration, and social control—the carceral state. Indeed, understanding the carceral state and the abolitionist movements that directly challenge it is critical to understanding contemporary US politics. Carceral abolitionists connect their struggle against the immediate violence, injustice, and deprivation of the US carceral system with a deeper and broader movement against the naturalized landscape of structural racism, neoliberal capitalism, militarism, and reproductive control. Carceral abolition demands shifting resources from death-dealing state systems such as police and prisons to life-giving systems under community control, and has long been a feature of Black radical and Black feminist thought. In 2020, the movement for carceral abolition exploded into mainstream politics with massive mobilizations taking the streets after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police, with cascading and still unfolding results. I approach the contemporary movement for carceral abolition as a case of a radical social movement in motion, where organizers are actively struggling and experimenting in the fight for a better world while constrained by the status quo.

Chicago is an instructive case of an abolitionist movement ecosystem, not as a typical or generalizable case but a unique one. Between 2015 to 2025, abolitionists in Chicago have achieved significant anti-carceral gains including reparations for police torture survivors, ending cash bail, removing police from public schools, and piloting non-police crisis response. However, these political efforts must be understood against the backdrop of a long and violent history of anti-Black racism, economic exploitation, deindustrialization, and brutal repression of liberatory community organizing. The history of 20th century Chicago is one of repeated repression and corresponding resistance that spanned the spectrum from reform to revolution. This rich history of resistance to the carceral state is a critical source of meaning-making and strategic influence for contemporary carceral abolitionists in Chicago and beyond. Informed by this wealth of movement culture and history, Chicago became the site for key early moments of emergence in the carceral abolitionist movement presaging 2020 and has developed a vibrant ecosystem of abolitionist efforts.

In this paper, I provide a historical overview of the structures of violence and radical resistance that shaped the political landscape of the city during the 20th century. I seek to synthesize histories across Black radical politics, left and labor organizing, and provide an incomplete, roughly chronological overview of the interplay of structural violence, radical resistance, and carceral repression in Chicago. This paper is derived from an early chapter in my dissertation that provides historical context for subsequent analysis of abolitionist organizing campaigns in Chicago. I begin with a brief overview of the settlement of Chicago leading up to the 20th century, and then proceed to a chronological narrative of radical resistance in Chicago divided by approximate eras in the 20th century. The final chronological section covers 21st century abolitionist organizing until 2025. I conclude with a brief analysis of how the specific historical forces in Chicago have shaped contemporary organizing against prisons, police, and punishment in Chicago.

Author

• Neomi Rao, University of Chicago