Racism and Civil Rights

---

Killing a Rat

A simple brick has a sinister legacy.

In 1991, I delivered a two-session speech in Chicago, Ill., on my philosophy of collecting objects “as witnesses of history, which are permeated with the essence of that historical moment.” While packing up my speech materials, I was approached by a young man who asked if I had room in the box for one more object? He brought from book bag a broken brick with a photo glued to it. He explained the brick had belonged to his grandfather, who had died at age 87 in 1990. The brick was grandfather’s “prize possession” because the picture on it was Chicago news photo of himself at the age of 17 in 1919 “killing a rat!”.

I told the young man his grandfather’s pride of brick was probably from money earned killing rats, which had a bounty on them in major city’s slums. Before leaving Chicago, I visited the Chicago History Museum, where while studying their records of the 1919 period, I found the photo of his grandfather which was on the brick! But it was only half of the news photo… see back of frame for the second half of the brick’s photo, and the truth behind the “rat killing” moment.