Promised Land- Story of Bernice Cooper Transcript

§ [blues harmonica] §

- My name is Bernice Cooper. I am 37 years old. I have three children. I lived all my life in South side Chicago. I really don't know nothing about no place but Chicago. 
[saxophone and street sounds]

And I done feel like a dead end a whole lot of time. Plenty of time, I even feel like, uh, killing myself, but I know if I did that, uh, the things that I wanted out of life for my kids, they would really be up for grabs then. I love you.

- Hey, shut up, man!

- Goddamnit!

- I try to figure out the best way out. Madison, Wisconsin is supposed to be a woman and a kids’ town. So, last winter, I decided to take a chance on it and me and my kids went to the bus station and we got a one-way ticket to give it a chance.

And the people that do look at this film, I mean, they can't get mad at me 'cuz the truth is the light. If they ain't scared, I am ‘cuz I'm on this.

- This is the story of one year in the life of Bernice Cooper, a year that began in January of 1992, when she left Chicago for the safehaven of Madison, Wisconsin. 
[baby cries]

- Mmm.

She's a month and 7 days.

- Bernice met Laverne Barnes, who came to Madison with three of her five children. She was given a room next to Bernice at the Salvation Army homeless shelter. 
[kids talking]

- In Chicago, it's wild down there. You know, running the guns, and you know they're gonna take my life like that.

- My son, okay, he's 13 and he had beginning to just begin to pick up the habits. How to make money quick. 
[child on TV speaking]
 
And I decided, in order to save my kid’s life and myself, I had to leave Chicago period with nothing. So, that's what I did.

- Come on, [inaudible].

- Hey, buddy!

[children and parents chatting]

- Boy: One day, we come down here with the, um, elders, all the people come out and eat. One man call us [racial slur]. Then, the next week, he came out here again. He called the "free loaders." Then, this week, we don't know what he gonna call. 
[adults laugh]

- My purpose is to see that my kids gettin' a decent education. They, they have a good, uh, school program here.

- Shelter Director, Barbara Lindsay...

- The schools here, the educational system is a real drawing card. It's a drawing card for everybody. It's a drawing card for middle class America to come to Madison, where it's nice and there's lakes and there's recreation and low crime and your kids get a really good education. Who wouldn't wanna live here? 
[chuckles]
 
Lower-income people come here for the same reasons. They want their kids to be able to move on out. There's a real pioneer spirit in what we see. 
[child talking]

- Bernice Cooper: It's too good to be true and it's like, you know, you can't believe if you're gonna get an apartment or if you're gonna get sent back or what.

- Can you lock that door?

- Bernice brought her youngest children, Darnell and 11-year-old Laranda, with her. Her oldest daughter, Latrice, stayed in the projects.

- Right.

- Latrice is 19, and has two infant children of her own. It's my granddaughter and that's my grandson in Chicago. 
[police siren]

- Latrice: At night, there's a lot of gunfire at night. This is the kids’ bedroom. It's really like a toy room for right now. When I first moved here, was violent things written on the wall. What we couldn't get off was, you know, what you see on the wall right now, like that. And also, when I moved in here, this is a bullet hole right here. This is a bullet hole.

- Latrice Cooper can see her childhood home from the building next door at Robert Taylor Homes.

- There ain't nobody out there for ya’. 
[child responds]

- Like her mother, she knows what it's like to raise young children like Samantha and Calvin, Jr. in an urban war zone.

- Hey, who's it? 
[child responds]

- Latrice: Also, these are the cabinets-- I keep these tied up because if a child goes in here, they can get lead poisoning. That also was also a bullet hole. That was there before I moved in. You know, you can be gone for an hour, someone can cut through the gate, break up, break up to the gate, and steal everything. Look at that, man. I always say to myself, me and my kids, they see us.

- Bernice Cooper: They alright. They're doing fine. They're just lonely. We gonna all for Leta and let them know where we at and see, maybe she might like it and decide to raise her kids here. 
[police radio dispatch]

- In February, the women moved to adjoining neighborhoods in Madison. 
[police sirens]
 
Madison is Wisconsin’s capital, an upscale community of a quarter-million, with a Big Ten university and state government at its heart.

But Madison's south side neighborhoods have developed pockets of poverty and the south side is one of the few places Laverne and Bernice could afford the rent.

- Man, well, this is my new apartment. Um, this is the living room. This um patio view-- something I never had, so. Okay, this is--

- Bernice bought a dining room set and mattresses from a used furniture store.

- Okay, this is my kids’ room, which they responsible for cleaning it up.

- The only thing she brought from Chicago was a bag filled with clothes and family photographs.

- Okay, this is me when I was born and this is a picture of me right here in kindergarten. Okay, I believe this a picture of me when I was like in third grade right here. Same face, never change. I had a hard time getting by in school because it was a lot of violent things going on in the household. My mother and father used to fight all the time and a lot of times, I used to have to sit up and think about if my mother was dead or alive.

- Throughout their childhood, Bernice and her ten brothers and sisters watched their father beat their mother.

- Because we had a lot of problems.

- When she was eight, she saw her brothers shoot and kill their father to stop the battering.

- And um, and this is a picture of me in fifth grade. Well, by fifth grade, I still weren't doin' no better. And this is a picture of me at the age of fifteen 'bout time-- I got gang-related by that time.

- By the time she was a teenager, most of her brothers belonged to gangs.

- Basically, wear jackets and black clothes or whatever, you know.

- Before she was 15, Bernice dropped out of the eighth grade and married Darnell Hines, the son of family friends. Okay, this is down here is a picture my husband just before he robbed the filling station store he's standing in front of-- This is Latrice and this is Latrice. I was 17 when I got pregnant, I was 18 when I had her. This is us again. Me, my husband, Latrice. This is a picture of my husband and my three brothers inside the penitentiary together. Now, you can see, the majority of Latrice life has been visiting penitentiary. The two at the top, the two at the...

- Bernice divorced Darnell, then lived for a while with a man named David.

- And Young Darnell and Laranda were born. And these are pictures of Laranda. And this is Darnell. You know, birth control wasn't taught to me. I didn't even learn birth control in the school. So, what was taught was that you not supposed to use birth control and that's what was taught to me. And this is the picture of the people from the project building that I lived in Chicago. You can tell it's kinda clean around there on these pictures. Those pictures are really, really old. It wouldn't look like that now. 
[outdoor voices, yelling]

- During a decade of trickle-down economics, little trickled down to housing projects in cities like Chicago.

- Jobs disappeared and neighborhoods decayed. The mid-80s brought an epidemic of crack cocaine that fueled the despair.

- I guess this could be hell on earth. I don't know what the government was thinking about when they put-- stacked poor people on top of poor people. They become prey of each other. They uh steal from each other. They fight each other. They kill each other. So, it's like the poor people on top of the poor people.

- Police Officer Mike Jameson and his partner cover the projects in South Chicago. They are foot soldiers in the war on drugs. It's a war zone where dealing drugs is one of the few livelihoods left.

- So much narcotic in this little area here. it's probably more narcotics. That's in Madison alone. You see Cadillacs, Imma say Mercedes, BMWs parked in these parking lots. Okay, why are they here? Are these people visiting? No, they belong to some 21, 22-year-old boy out here that's selling drugs that's really getting rich off the people that's living in the building.

- I would take all my food stamps, all of 'em,

every last one of 'em and give it to the dope people.

- Alone on welfare, with three kids to raise, Bernice Cooper was one of many thousands who tried crack cocaine and fell into the abyss of addiction.

- It just blocked. It was like a shield. It blocked everything that hurt in my life. I didn't. I didn't have to hurt no more see 'cuz I couldn't think no more, no way. The kids didn't have nothing and I didn't know how they was going to eat most of the time. I didn't even care most of the time. When I didn't have-- I had every single day for at least about five or six years, every single day until I was almost crazy. At first, I thought about jumping out the window,

but I would think about my kids. Then, the next time, I took some rat poison. Some rat poison. And swallowed that down. 
[traffic noises]

- In order to get treatment, Bernice went to the police.

- I told that I was a drug abuser. I've been abusing my kids, been neglecting my kids for so long and when I do go home, I said, this time, I said, I'm gonna kill myself is I said, but first, Imma kill my three kids and then Imma kill myself too. So, he told me he say, well, if you need help, then you have to be charged with child neglect. He said, can you prove that you'se a child neglecter? I say, yeah, I can prove it. You send somebody home with me. So, they got a couple of officers together and brought them home with me and I was proving child neglect.

- Bernice went through treatment, took her kids, and left Chicago for good.

- Laranda: Darnell, do you think girls should wash the dishes and sweep the floor, and boys should mowing the lawn and...

- Bernice: Take out the garbage?

- Darnell: Yeah, uh-huh.

- Fine with me, as long as you do it. I feel real good. I feel better than what I felt in almost 10 years. The only thing that they ask for me to do is make sure that my rent is paid every month on time and that I will do.

- Bernice gets over $150 more every month on welfare than she did in Illinois, but in Madison, she has much less to live on and the reason is rent.

- I pay $375 in rent, which I never ever paid that much rent in my life. I only pay up to-- The most rent I ever pay is $63.

- Laverne Burns found an apartment on nearby Simpson Street.

- And this is my bedroom, me and my babies. This baby. 
[laughs]
Y'all got to excuse this room 'cuz I don't have no furniture yet, I mean, no beds yet. The rent is high. In Chicago, I was paying um $79, so it's a big difference from $410. You know.

- Like Bernice, Laverne’s rent will take over two-thirds of her monthly welfare check. And Simpson Street has become notorious for crack and crime, but in Madison safety seems possible, at last.

- They don't have to worry about when they go outside and somebody shooting and all that stuff. Ain't no gang bangers running around, you know, doing / selling drugs right out in the hallway. So, that's-- that's what make it worth it.

- For women on welfare, food is scarce by the end of the month.

Pantries offer free groceries that must be hauled home on the bus.

The transportation here on the bus is so clean. It's quiet. It's just, um, the whole atmosphere just seems so different. you know, so free. It's hard to really explain.

But it feels good to be able to try to explain it.

- Good! It's a practice lessons to-- for beginner typing.

- Twice a week, while her kids are in school, Bernice goes to Madison Area Technical College to work on her High School Equivalency Degree. She is once again in the eighth grade.

- Okay, that's just giving you um a progress report. Right now, it's not as is as important as it will be later. But, as you go on, you'll see how you're improving and that's the whole idea of this.

- The computers help you to understand what you are reading and it helps you with a typing skill too. Maybe later on in the future, I can get a job, ah, using computers.

- While Bernice is in high school, her daughter, Laranda, is now a fifth grade student at Frank Allis Elementary School.

- Laranda: Teachers more smarter. We give more respects to the teacher, than we did in Chicago and we learn more.

- We're gonna talk about whether you can prevent this stuff or you can reduce your stress about it.

- Remember, we're dropping eggs from eight feet. This is three feet tall.

- Bernice's son Darnell is an eighth grade student at Sennett Middle School, a world away from his old school in South Chicago.

- [Police Radio Dispatches]
 ...the parents are holding the assistant principal with a knife. ...gang fight in the front of 3200 South State at 3200 South State... at the school Washington... the complainant that...

- Police Officer: We had a problem with, uh, academics. We have an even greater problem with uh attendance. We don't achieve anywhere near what all of us would like to.

- William Oxy was the fourth principal in ten years at John Ferren Public School. He took a job no one else wanted. The school sits beside Taylor Homes' 28 high-rise buildings, and is under siege by kids with guns.

- Police presence is everywhere, outside and in, to keep the kids with drugs and weapons away. Principal Oxy says it's hard to concentrate on school when you're tired, hungry, and afraid.

- It's kinda scary when you look at the world of tomorrow.

If you can't read, you can't write, you're doomed and we unfortunately failed too much.

- Gonna make the book covers. And we're gonna show him off around the building.

- Diane Pierce taught Latrice, Laranda, and Darnell in her language arts classes. Darnell, I always remember him. I remember his whole family. Very likable child, very, very likable, very respectful. Uh, he strived.

- She remembers Darnell, especially well because he worked so hard and managed to avoid the pressures of the projects,

- But they have pressures to join the gangs, pressure to sell drugs, pressures to not come to school, hang out with me, don't do what your teacher tells you to do, don't do what your mother tells you to do. You're your own individual. You don't have to. Most of the girls start having children young. They drop out, the guys get hung up in the drug scene, the money, the cars. It looks good and they stop. I try; We all try. This is what you had yesterday. I said to take the same book that you had yesterday. Now, who has a book that they did not have yesterday? I'm very strict and harsh, hard on them, but I tell them I expect a lot from. I don't care who you are what you are, you can achieve. And Darnell did prove that.

- Now in Madison, Darnell and the kids from the projects are often five to seven years behind their suburban classmates.

- Based on our meetings with staff that has looked over his records and things, he felt, you know, way back. He is academically disadvantaged.

- Sandy Corneen is one of Darnell’s new eighth grade teachers in Madison.

- We're what we're gonna do is we're gonna drop an egg. You are to develop some kind of system where they're either gonna catch the egg or they're gonna drop it with eggs so it doesn't break. And I feel he has a great attitude. He wants to learn. And, of course, we can't work wonders and make him, you know, Einstein, but we can do the best we can and if the best you can is a C minus, it's all we ask for. So, we let them know that.

- A cushion mobile...

- Teacher: A cushion mobile! Go ahead. 
[background chatter]
 Yeah, a big round of applause.

- Evenings now are often filled with homework.

- If I did study when I was in school, I don't remember it. So, it's just like new all over again.

- Laranda wants to become a lawyer someday, but Darnell has trouble making plans for his future.

- And, hopefully, I wanna stay alive.

- Nearby on Simpson Street, Laverne's daughter Candice is in grade school and three-year-old Andre spends his mornings at a Head Start program a block away.

But Laverne's plans to get her high school diploma and find a job have stalled.

- I can't, um, go to school 'cuz I don't have no babysitter for my two-month-old, but... And then, you got to pay for that babysitter also. You know, and I don't have the money for it anyway.

So, I can wait. I don't wanna wait, but I can wait. Lay down here.

- TV cartoon voice: But it wouldn't make any difference where we were living 'cuz we'd be together!

- Have I been to live with?

- Are you kidding? You've been great! I'm not complaining, honest! I only want to see you happy again, Mom.

- It was hard for me to believe that I am living in area like this because I only see these things on TV. And now, it's like a reality so maybe if I get a chance to get me the barbecue grill, I can go out, put my barbecue grill out, get me little table, and have me a little picnic, me and my kids. Enjoy ourself. 

§ [gospel singing] § 
Feels real good. 
§ Sing, come on to me and rest §
§ Come § 
§ Home §

- By early spring, the Coopers were going to church at the Broadway Simpson Neighborhood Center. Their new Baptist minister is the Reverend Ike Miller.

- I challenge you. Are you gonna let the same thing that happened last year to you, yeah, you gonna let 'em happen this year? That's what he's saying. When you know what sin is. One of Paul's letters to the Corinthians is about holiness. Somebody like to read that for us?

- Ye are brought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. One Corinthians 6:20.

- Renewed faith in God and a three-hour service every Sunday help Bernice stay straight.

- GOD, I HAD A TRYING WEEK...

- I can do it. Okay, and believe in yourself.

- By late spring, life was going well for Bernice and Rhonda, but not for Darnell.

- Who has been suspended since last week?

- Me.

- How many days have you, uh, do you think you have lost?

- Eleven.

- Eleven days? Now, how about you? How many days have you lost this year?

- Seven.

- Seven days already? How about from last year?

- Described by his teachers in Chicago as respectful and striving, Darnell has now been placed in an intervention program for At-risk African-American teenage boys at Sennett School.

- I just find out that, on average, each one of you are losing at least 14 days a year, and that will set you way, way behind.

- Darnell has been suspended almost weekly for disruptive behavior and fights. Now, every week, he meets for lunch with team leaders, Clara Jackson and Alejandro Nunez.

- And I was talking to Darnell because Darnell, he has gotten into two fight that I know. Would you consider missing another three days of classes or you can see it walking away? What would you do?

- Walking away?

- Like Darnell, many of these boys were homeless when they came to Madison from bigger cities. Many have had brushes with the law. They live on Madison's South side, where they grow up angry in the midst of affluence.

- But he missed so I decided to take matters in my own hand. And, you know, I just picked him up and dropped him, and then I kicked him a couple of times.

- So, I didn't think twice. I just swung at him.

- What's up, dog?- Nunez says boys like Darnell fight to stay out of street gangs. Others fight with their white classmates when racial tensions arise.

- And if a black person hits a white person, and if the white person get bruised, the white person can go to the office and tell the principal and show the principal that bruise, and we'll be the ones getting in trouble.

- School went out in May and by early summer, the kids were hanging around the neighborhoods. Few found summer jobs.

- We're giving away some free clothes. You find what you want, sister?

- I'm looking, if these mosquitoes don't eat me up.

- Bernice helped Reverend Miller distribute free clothing. Laverne and her kids were his first customers of the day.

- Mama said, come and get the baby one of y'all.

- This like a little project area, and it's getting worser. Dope dealers, too much fighting, it's bad for the kids, too. You know, when I pulled up from Chicago, you know, took him from Chicago to get out of that.

- Bernice's kids spent most of their summer in the park next to their building.

Darnell made some friends who hang out at the mall. They got picked up for shoplifting firecrackers, but were released with a warning from the police. Soon after, Darnell was picked up again. This time for staying out past 10 o'clock curfew.

- Bailiff: Town of Madison is now in court, now in session. Please be quiet.

- On June 23rd, Darnell went to juvenile court for his misdemeanor curfew violation. The charge carries a $55 fine and at the end of the month, Bernice is down to her last few dollars.

- Charge is a curfew violation. Darnell is appearing with his mother.

- And do you understand that the reason why you're here is to enter a plea with regard to this charge?

- Darnell: Guilty.

- Judge: Have you have you had any other charges against you? Have you been in court before?

- No.

- Okay, this is your first time?

- Yeah.

- Because this is your first time in juvenile court, what I will do is, if you follow all of your mom's rules for the next six months, I'll dismiss this ticket.

- Okay.

- If you're back here in court, then we're gonna deal with this ticket and it's gonna stay at the $55 and then you're gonna have to figure out how to deal with it.

- Darnell wasn't the only one to face courts and consequences in Madison. 
[bear growls on TV]
 In early summer, Latrice and her kids came up for a long visit from Chicago. My daughter, like, she had no decent underwear. She only had this one bra and had great big hole in the middle of it and it's really, really dirty and my feelings was so hurt. We went to the mall and she went in the dressing room and didn't have the money to pay for the stuff so she put it in the bags and I took the bags and carried it out.

- The women were seen by store security and arrested for shoplifting. The charge carries a maximum of 9 months in county jail and up to a $10,000 fine.

- And I apologize to the people in the store because I knew better. Before I went into the store, like I said, I had to villain, this come to my brains. That's wrong. Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. Then I said, "No, I have to help Tricey."

- Latrice took her kids back to Chicago.

- Bus Driver: First Wisconsin Bank building transfer A Line 1.

- Bernice skipped her first court date without notice, then decided to turn herself in.

- I had a problem with finance and I felt bad, and we went to the store and try to steal the stuff.

- Okay, fair enough. Look, um, owning up to it is half the battle.

- But I know it wasn't right.

- Public defender John Lubarsky was assigned to Bernice's case. They met for a pre-trial conference before her next court date. Bernice's case: this is a copy of her criminal history that was received, I think, from Cook County, Her record, certainly in comparison with many others that I've seen over the years, is pretty minor. She fessed up to a mistake and she was honest about it and the system will give her another chance and I think she'll take advantage of it.

- Bernice's trial will be in a month. In the meantime, she looked for a job. Her first stop was a cheese packing company that advertised for holiday help.

- Bus Driver: First Wisconsin Bank building transfer A Line 1.

- I wanted to show my kids a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas. The few months that I will be working for the holiday season. Then, I can probably go to night class, to evening class.

- Did you put in an application, have an interview with us?

- Yes, I did.

- And your name is Bernice Cooper? Let me pull your application. Hey, Bernice, you did interview with us on the 20th. Currently, what we're doing is we're still bringing back some of our people that we call "recalls." These are people that come back year after year, and then we're gonna start bringing in new people. People like yourself. You have down as a phone number for a neighbor?

- Yeah, it's my next door neighbor.

- Can we still get ahold of you? Beginning of October would be when we start calling again for the new people.

- Okay.

- Alright? Okay, thank you.

- Well, thanks for coming in, Bernice, I appreciate it. Nice to meet you again.

- Okay.

- Do you have any questions about any of this? No, you're squared away.

- A month later, Bernice was back at the Dane County Courthouse for her trial on retail theft. With her previous record, there was no guarantee the judge would accept her plea bargain of one year's probation and the minimum $50 fine. What plead did you wanna have entered guilty?

- Guilty.

- So, I would accept the plea, fine to judge you guilty. I have no problem with the agreement with Old sentence. Place you on probation for one tear. Can you pay the $50 court cost within 60 days? If you can just do it within 60 days, it's done directly at the clerk's office. 
[Bernice and lawyer converse]

- Lawyer: Let me ask you that she have a year to do it, Judge.

- I don't have a problem. I'll allow it as a condition of probation.

- Thanks, Judge.

- Thank you.

- She got certainly a fair shake and she'll do well on probation. She'll do fine.

- It's what I have to do: I have to pay for my mistake. It'll take me a while to get $50 fine to pay it.

Bernice Cooper, and I'm looking for employment.

- Okay, looking for industrial work or clerical work?- Industrial.

- Industrial, okay. We'll just take you down here and have you talked to

- Bernice's next stop was an employment agency. She hadn't heard from the cheese plant and it was getting close to the holidays.

- I'm looking at your employment background and you say it's many years ago since you worked for somebody. When are you available to start working?

- Now. Now, like tomorrow? Okay. If you haven't heard from us by tomorrow morning, give us a call, okay? um... mm... I shouldn't be the one calling you because the bottom one is my next-door neighbor 'cuz I don't have a phone and this one here is Reverend Miller's.

- Oh, okay.

- Bernice took a weekend job through the agency. She cleaned motel rooms and was offered a permanent weekend job, but she had to turn it down. The motel was across town and there was no bus service on weekends to get her there and back.

The start of school was only a few weeks away and she and Laverne needed school supplies and clothes for their kids. 
[mom and child talking]

- They had some luck at the county's free clothing store. A man brought in his kid’s old desk to give away. I have two kids.

- Man: Good, well, this worked out very well. I painted it or finished it a number of years ago. It's been well used.

- Looks good!

- And tell your, uh, tell your children that it was an 'A' student that used this, okay? 
[both laugh]
Take care.

- Okay, thank you. 
[Bernice sighs]
A 'A' student... 
[laughs]
We're gonna make magic.

- Laverne needs extra clothes. Her two teenage boys have come up from Chicago to go to school.

- Laverne: They say they don't wanna be no gang bangers. They don't wanna be like that. They don't wanna be standing on the corner selling dope and tryna to make them join the gang, but, you know, they-- Nathan the one that's 13, he had to go a whole another route to get home. They wanna be somebody so that's good. They wanna go to school. That's good.

- I'm going to school to be a computer engineer. I feel like the teachers care for you.

- That's the same way I feel.

- Because my school, everybody walk into to each other, be beating up people, principal don't care. And here, teachers try to learn you something. This make my old school look like a little roach house. 
[laughs]
Little roach hotel. 

§ [hip-hop music] §

- As the summer passed, the city was changing and the evidence was everywhere. Gang graffiti spread from the poorest neighborhoods to the business district and university campus.

For the first time, security guards were posted at the doors of the kids' new school.

§ [marching band performing] §

- Mike Meissen: Welcome to La Follette High School. My name is Mr. Meissen. I am glad that you are here. Freshman, you are an important part of this school.

- Darnell is now a freshman at La Follette High. His principal is Mike Meissen.

- Meissen: You do the job right, you get your diploma four years from now, it's gonna put you into that hotshot college.

- Cheerleaders: Uh-rah-rah, La-Foll-ette!

- What did you do?

- There’s yours.

- On your test?

- Uh-huh, yeah...

- I got three Cs in one.

- I want you to think about, walk around in other people's shoes to see how they feel, to see things from their point of view. This is what I want you to do because this is how we understand people better, if we try to see how they're feeling.

- Great, does everybody see where they made a mistake?

- Laranda is now next door at Darnell's old school. Why don't I want to write a Roman numeral like that?

- 'Cuz you have to do it in a problem.

- Not exactly.

- If there's any problems in the locker room or the gym, let me help you out, okay. Any questions? You're gonna like our school.

- For Laverne's kids, Dwayne and Nathan, and Bernice's daughter, Laranda, learning to fit in will be a long and difficult process.

Within a month, Laranda, like Darnell, was getting into fights. The school brought in a social worker to teach her some new skills.

- Laranda: What you push me for?! You couldn't say excuse me!

- Jody pushed me to you.

- Okay, what was the point at which you wanted to stop...

- Susan Kate had Laranda and her friend, Nina, act out confrontations that gave them trouble in school.

- What did you say? What happened then? There was a big back and forth thing about who did this? So, then, Ms. Martin says what?

- She said, "Laranda, why did you push him?"

- Okay. Laranda, why did you push him?

- I didn't push him. He push into me! Okay, and then, what did she say? She said, "Well, don't talk to me in that kind of way."

- Don't talk to me in that kind of way, Laranda.

- I can do anything I want to you. You don't own me. I ain't gotta go nowhere with your prejudice self.

- Okay, is that what you said to her that day?

- Uh-huh.

- Okay. So, you know, you can't walk down the hall without somebody pushing into you here. And if you always think that somebody's doing it on purpose, then you're gonna get in trouble all the time.

- I sit in my seat, then Imma holla at her some 'cuz that's the way I always do and that's how I was raised up at my school.

- Where it's not so safe like in the projects, you have to have a certain kind of attitude that makes it look like you're not scared of anybody, right?

- And, uh, we was in gym class and the girl had threw the volleyball and she had scratch me. I said, "Excuse me, but you scratch me." So, this girl named Veronica took her hair like this and started banging to the locker, and I just started hitting on her face and then this girl named Monique just kicking. So, I said why you do that?" And then, she said, "I ain't do it, bitch! I ain't do it, bitch!" I said, "Don't call me no bitch!"

- Kate thinks such explosions are often seen as racial tension, but that isn't always the case.

- Kate: And if they're in a neighborhood where they have to be on their guard and be tough all the time, and then you're with other kids who didn't have to grow up like that, they're just two different kinds of people at that moment when they meet. And so, there's tension in just behavioral differences like that. And so, that looks like racial tension, but I'm not sure. Maybe that-- the shift in mind of saying of them saying to themselves, "Oh, I need to do it differently here so that I can get "what I need out of this out of the school, out of the system, out of an education," that, "I'm gonna choose to do it differently here." You know, it's so hard when you grow up in a in something that you know you learn for years and years and years, and then you-- then, you're asked to leave it at the door.

[knocking on the door]

- Hi.

- Hi, want the Milwaukee Journal? I like to know if you'll be interested in subscribing to the Milwaukee Journal half price?

- Well, I'd love to, but, uh, we already get a newspaper here.

- Alright, thanks.

- Thanks, anyway.

- And, one thing, if they don't subscribe or whatever, you say we can save you money. A dollar a week, if you use coupons, and two coupons to pay for the paper each week. Darnell's neighbor Bob Weir recruited him for an after school job that gets him out of his neighborhood. Darnell sells newspapers door to door and has already made over $200.

- What if I was interested in just a Sunday?

- Oh, yeah.

- That's right here.

- What I try to do is instill confidence in them. And, a lot of these kids, that's what they're looking for.

- Check alright?

- Uh-huh.

- Like a big brother type deal.

- You are a coach. You tell me uh, I can do it, I can make the order.

- He's doing fantastic. He wants to make something of himself, and that's what I like about Darnell. You know he does-- He has some pride. Way to go, Darnell.

- But the streets Darnell explored, were growing more dangerous. By October, Madison's violent and juvenile crime rates were soaring.

- Put my baby in the house. Take her in the house.

- [child crying "Noooooo!"]
Don't leave, no. Don't don't leave my babies in there by their self.

- Officer: Relax.

- [child screaming "Nooooooo!"]

- One Saturday a shooting on nearby Simpson Street, warned of a gang dispute.

The following Tuesday, rival gangs shot at each other from cars as they drove near Darnell's School.

- I had heard it on, saw it on the news and when he got home, I asked him about it, and uh he told me that he was stopped in school by uh one of the gang members. He told him, "Well, raise up your shirt," and let him see if he had a gang sign on his body. He raised up his shirt and the boy told me that he was lucky that he didn't have a gang sign because if he did, he raised up his shirt and showed him a gun. And uh Darnell said that he attempted to try and tell somebody at the school, but at that time, um, the whole school was so in the rag, I guess, that wouldn't nobody listen to what he had to say. So, he told me about it and he said the boy scared him.

- Whether you realize it or not, the gang members is in the school, and they're not getting no better. They gettin' worser and it's bad for other people with authority to try to bring it under and keep it quiet when it's not helping the children at all.

- Bernice went to Darnell's High School a few days later to meet with school officials, including principal Mike Meissen.

- I don't fully understand the pressure of uh a young person going through adolescence to become involved in the gang. I'm working hard to understand that. We take the safety of each student at this school very, um, seriously.

- Have you ever tried to talk to someone and they didn't take you seriously or they ignored you or they... or something happened?

- Darnell: They ignored me.

- Woman: You mean the staff member?

- Yeah.

- As a parent, that I needed to speak to someone to let him know that he need to be listened to.

- Mm-hmm, exactly.

- Meissen: I thought that it would be appropriate to investigate it to the police. I'm gonna say that, um, that the school is in a position to make sure that uh things are safe and that um... yet, if it isn't completely that way, well, we're gonna work on it. We're gonna deal with that.

- This is a great principal, you know. 
[laughs]

- Meissen: Tell them the real feeling. 
[inaudible]
 
I'd like to think that we have this building covered. I mean, if somebody's gonna bring something into this building, I'm out and about and I'm all over the building, I'm gonna know about it. 

[bell rings] 
There it is-- Now, you're all late. Come on, guys, let's be on time.

- Bernice Cooper: I wasn't satisfied. I don't think they believe that it will get worser. My true belief is that it will 'cuz I've seen it happen. I know the possibility of what gangs and drugs can do to a community.

- The following week, a man from the Coopers' apartment building was found shot to death in the park. Darnell and a friend found the body.

- Police: There's a couple of children that were in the park at the time, and there were two guys fighting on top of the hill and they were kinda arguing and then they kinda tumbled a little ways down the hill and then there was a shot and the one of the guys fell a little further down the hill, and when he got to the bottom, the guy came up and shot him again and ended it all, and kinda took off. And he's a 17-year-old juvenile. He's a lifelong resident of the South Madison area, and he's a student in La Follette High School. Indications are at this time that the case might be drug-related.

- But it's-- it's here and ain't nothing I can do about it.

- Bernice and her neighbors learned that the 17 year-old boy who shot the man went to Donnell's school and lived in the neighborhood.

- Madison: well, I give about five years to be like another little Chicago. When I first came here, you know, it was like a dream come true, but you know, it's a nice neighborhood to bring, you know, raise your child up in. You know, 'cuz it's not like where I raised up on South side Chicago, ain't like that.

- What gang were you in? Is there a lot of them down here? I don't know about that. You know, I was a Gangster Disciple, you know, but I don't know how many down here or not, you know. I don't associate. I just be myself, go to work, you know, take care of my family. More jobs need to be open up to minorities. just not minor-- everybody, you know. Don't let them grow up like I grew up, you know. 
[Tasmanian Devil cartoon on TV]

- I guess he never seen a dead body before. It's still-- it's still bothering him.

- Darnell quit his newspaper job and stayed inside after school. 

§ [La Follette Marching Band "The Star-Spangled Banner"] §

- crowd: U-rah-rah! 
[percussion and poms]

- Yeah!

[cheers and applause]

- Few of the South side kids went to the homecoming game or the dance. 
§ ["Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)" by Paul Lekakis] § 
§ And you can make me feel right § 
§ Boom Boom Boom § 
§ Let's go back to my room § 
§ So we can do it all night §

- Few had the money for the $8 admission or the dressy clothes. 

§ ["Unconditional Love" by Atlantic Starr] § 
§ 'Cause I believe that a soul should be set free § 
§ But just as long as you live § 
§ Promise me you'll never give § 
§ Your heart to anyone else § 
§ Unconditional love §

- On the meaner streets of Madison, the South Side kids were staying home.

- Police Officer: The calls are becoming more and more violent, more and more dangerous-- for not just the officers, but for everybody.

- Police officer Chris Thompson patrols Madison's high-crime South side.

- Officer: Can you describe this uh suspect we're looking for? All we know is a male black, about 21.

"Shots fired" calls and we are called in on Simpson Street about, I believe, the average is close to once a night. Maybe every other night.

- Thompson trained in the South Chicago projects and understands why kids are attracted to gangs.

- If you make a kid feel good about himself and he has a good family and a good base, he doesn't need to affiliate to something such as a gang family because in the most hardcore gang communities, the gang is the family. The gang is your support system,

- But Thompson's most frequent call is not to stop the violent kids. It's to stop the domestic violence within their homes. He says it's a hidden crime that spills out into the streets.

- Children growing up in a home where they see the parents being violent toward one another or even violent toward where the kids. Treat your child in a certain way or beat them in a certain way that they find that's acceptable way to treat you know their children or other people, and I'm sure that it's gotta be the most contributing major contributing factor to it.

You see now that-- I don't think you've ever used to see in Madison area housing complexes hiring security services to patrol areas. I think that's an indicator of what you're dealing with.

- Youth are gettin' shot.

- By early November, Bernice had saved enough money for a bus ticket back to Chicago to visit her daughter Latrice. 
[yelling and arguing in background]
 
She brought presents for her grandkids since they don't expect to be together at Christmas.

- Say "Hi, baby."

- Child: Hi, baby!

- This paint right here is against the law. Some of these pieces is drop down and kids get in their mouth is lead poisoning.

- Since Bernice left, the buildings have decayed even further. Many of Latrice's neighbors have fled the violence, leaving her and her kids on their own.

- Come on, she's gonna go to take us to dinner.

- Bernice Cooper: I worry about the situation that they have to live in and that we're so far apart. I want them to come and move to Madison and raise her kids there. 
§ §

- So, this mother here.

- Thank you.

- Thank you and happy Thanksgiving!

- Thank you, you, too.

- Happy Thanksgiving to you.

- Okay.

- The day before Thanksgiving, Bernice and Reverend Miller delivered free holiday dinners in the south side neighborhoods.

- And one 12-pound turkey!

- Happy Thanksgiving.

- Bernice had a surprise a few days later. Latrice and her kids arrived from Chicago to stay.

The final blow came when they were robbed at gunpoint of the few things they owned, including the kids' snow suits and her welfare check.

- She's still my responsibility, although she's considered as grown, but I don't think 19 is grown. I will have to do all I can do to help her.

When's the last time I cooked you a Thanksgiving dinner?

- Darnell: A long time ago.

- This went on for years. But it's over with now. This is almost like a new start. 
[toddler laughs]
 Now, we can have Thanksgiving and Christmas together. And be thankful for what we got and people that's here in our life that help us. 

§ [chimes ring] §
 
[church choir sings]
§ The Holly and the Ivy § 
§ When they are both full grown § 
§ Of all the trees that are in the woods § 
§ The holly bears the crown § 
§ O, the rising of the sun § 
§ And the running of the deer § 
§ The playing of the merry horn § 
§ Sweet singing in the choir §

- Just wait a little bit and we'll get to you guys.

- Bernice didn't get a job and money was scarce before Christmas. She and Latrice spent a day waiting in line to get free toys.

- Okay.

- There was plenty for the little ones, but gifts for older kids were scarce.

- So, you want that one for your girl and this one for your boy? Okay.

- At stop After stop, they found toys for Laranda and the grandkids, but nothing for Darnell.

- They say he's too old. So I don't think he'll get too much. 
[wind chimes ringing]
 § ["Silent Night"] §

I got what I wanted for Christmas and that's my family and my grandkids.

- Oh, I know what I don't have--

- Don't I have you? 
[kisses child]
Don't I have you? 

This is our first Christmas in about, could have been, ten years. This is my first-time celebrating Christmas again the right way.

- On Christmas Eve, Bernice shared her holiday with another family that had just arrived from Chicago.

- Did you go to that lunch?

- [inaudible response.]

- They came and get the kids at the Salvation Army too.

- Okay, Michelle is one of the people that lived in the same building-- project building that I lived in. I fed him and I let them spend the night and I took him to the shelter. She won't be alone on Christmas. 
[laughter]

- Laverne came over for a break from a rough year in a rough neighborhood. Most of her dreams are still out of reach.

- Well, I'd go back to school. Also, like, to have a job, okay. I would like to get off this aid, this aid thing, which I needed.

- I had a lot of help through my whole year. I had a lot of help. and I had good people behind me to help me get through this year. I got better apartment. I'm in a better environment for me and my kids, a safer environment. And in Chicago, I don't know if my son would have graduated from eighth grade. And, Laranda, she's doing okay.

- You see, Andre, he like going to school. He like the place. He love his teacher. And Candice, the eight-year-old, she dancing a lot lately. 
[laughs warmly] 
And Nathan, he trying to get hisself together. Dwayne, he went back 'cuz he couldn't adjust up here.

- I have come a very long way and I used to think about blessings. What do blessings mean? I never knew what that meant. I never believed that there was a God. But now, with all my heart, I truly believe that there's a god. 'Cuz without God, I don't think I would've never made it here.

§ I heard the voice of Jesus and § 
§ I § 
§ Hey §

§ The § 
§ Voice of Jesus § 
§ Saying come on to me and rest § 
§ Come on § 
§ To § 
§ Me § 
§ And § 
§ Lie down § 
§ That way that one lie down § 
§ Lie down § 

© 1993.