DARING TO STRUGGLE, DARING TO WIN

A former member of the Chicago City Council reflects on a life dedicated to the never-ending struggle for the “right of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice.”

Shiller grew up a McCarthy-era child of leftist immigrant Jews who instilled a strong sense of social responsibility from an early age. During the 1960s, she honed the political awareness that followed her through high school and college at the University of Wisconsin, where she became involved in the anti-war movement and the Students for a Democratic Society. Shiller’s post-college commitment to civil rights action in Racine led to involvement with the Black Panthers, which intensified her desire to fight for social justice. Her grassroots work eventually took her south to Chicago. A single mother, she assisted poor residents in the uptown area through food and clothing distribution programs and led the fight against the Chicago 21 Plan, an urban renewal project that would further segregate the city. ­“The plan envisioned a downtown where upper-middle-class families could live and thrive, while targeting surrounding communities where poor and working people (often of color) lived,” writes the author. In 1978, Shiller ran the first of several city council campaigns but did not become alderperson until 1987, the same year the liberal Black mayor, Harold Washington, won a second term. For the next 24 years, Shiller remained engaged in the fight for affordable housing, increased AIDS funding, more inclusive public schools, and an end to police brutality. Overwhelming in the amount of, at times chronologically fractured, detail it presents, this hyperlocal narrative, which also includes a Black Panther–inspired 10-point guide to political engagement (“Identify the opposition and deepen the community’s understanding of it”), will most likely appeal to activists and/or readers with a specific interest in the modern political history of Chicago.

An informative book for a limited audience.