About the Project

Public Project:

The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project (CTJM) a collective of educators, activists, community organizers, artists, lawyers and torture survivors

The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project (CTJM) formed in 2011 as part of an on-going effort to secure justice for the Chicago police torture survivors. CTJM issued a call for “speculative memorials of radical imagination” that remember and interrogate the conditions that lead to the torture of over 100 African American men and women in Chicago under former Police Commander Jon Burge during the years 1972–1991. Our goal is to honor the survivors of torture, their family members and the African American communities affected by the torture. By issuing a call for proposals we seek to reckon with this history, its ongoing impact on our communities, and the structural racism that enabled this torture to continue unchecked for three decades.

After a more than a year of CTJM events, roundtables, discussions, and public working groups at institutions and community centers across Chicago CTJM’s work culminated in an exhibition at The Sullivan Galleries at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago "Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture." The exhibition featured memorial proposals from over 70 local, national, and international artists, educators, students and activists. The programming for the exhibition included discussions, readings, screenings, and performances.

”When Chicago's City Council passed the Reparations for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors Ordinance on May 6, 2015, it was the first time a municipality in the United States offered reparations to those harmed by police misconduct. The reparations ordinance, which provided redress to individuals and communities who were tortured and terrorized by Burge and the officers under his command, included an apology, the creation of a public memorial to the torture survivors and their families, financial compensation, free City College tuition for survivors and family members, a center offering specialized services in trauma counseling and job assistance to survivors and their families, and the incorporation of the Burge torture cases into the curriculum at Chicago Public Schools.”

Shubra Ohri and Sarah Ross for Chicago Torture Justice Memorials
Still Here Torture Resiliency and the Art of Memorializing, Arts Incubator, Chicago

related materials

Website:
chicagotorture.org