The Edge of Bronzeville
A Transmedia and Augmented Reality Project
chronicling a personal history of
the rise and fall of public housing.
What was it like to live in the
Harold J. Ickes Projects
in the very beginning?
What are the things that defined the community?
What were the conditions for employment, education
and services and how did they impact that community?
We lived on the "Edge of Bronzeville."
What did that mean? My family lived in 2310 S State St, Apt 401.
We migrated from the
Mississippi Delta.
After living on the West Side we moved to the Ickes Projects,
in 1958 in the middle of the Cold War. My father, then in the US Army,
was a radar man at a Missile base 9 blocks away.
We lived on the 4th floor of 2310
My father worked at Nike 1B, 2C/30A/12L-A, Lake Shore and E 31st Burham Park , just south of McCormick Place, 1958 – 1963
Nike missile sites were constructed in rings surrounding major urban and industrial areas and key Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases and other sensitive installations. Though they were built on government-owned property where available including two portions of Chicago's Burnham and Jackson Parks. Approximately 250 sites were constructed in the U.S. between 1953 and 1958. Two Nike missile bases had formerly been located in the parks along Lake Shore Drive--one south of McCormick Place East (designated C-40) and the other adjacent to the East Lagoon in Jackson Park (designated C-41).
We went to Haines Public School
in Chinatown
The classes were diverse, the teachers were
passionate and dedicated to teaching us.
This is my 3rd Grade Class
We were a multinational group of students
being educated together at the height of
Jim Crow Apartheid in America.
We were surrounded by businesses and institutions
than impacted our lives
Proximity and access meant exposure to influences necessary for the growth and maturity of young minds.
Muhammad Speaks Newspaper was an historic journal some of managed to work at cleaning up the docks
Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad began the publication on May 1962. A weekly publication, it was distributed nationwide by the N.O.I. and covered current events around the world as well as relevant news in African-American communitiesf. The paper was sold door-to-door and on street corners by Nation of Islam members (Fruit of Islam), at select newsstands in major cities and in the temples of the Nation of Islam. In his The Autobiography of Malcolm X, activist Malcolm X claimed to have founded the newspaper.
Living close to the Chicago Defender provided work
Being a child straight out of Mississippi meant that for recreationional things like comic Books, you were on your own. Living on the edge of Bronzville gave us a lot of opportunities.
Some of us worked as paperboys.
Living in the projects meant we could deliver to subscription
clients in our building and even sell door to door.
If one was very persuasive, he could get to
work sweeping the press room.
We all had to have a hustle growing up in the 1960's.
Selling papers was the start of realizing
entrepreneurial possibilities for oneself.
Robert Sengstake Abbot and the Paperboys
Mr Abbot was very appreciative of his youthful distributors and created
the largest and longest running parade event in America.
The Bud Billiken Parade.
We were proud to be paperboys.
We were proud to work for the Sengstacke family.
On August 10, 1929, Mr Sengstacke created
a parade and picnic to honor
his young workers and celebrate all children
as they returned to school from Summer.
The Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic is an annual parade held since 1929 in Chicago.
The Bud Billiken Day Parade is the largest African-American parade in the United States of America.
Click Here
James Brown and Muhammad Ali
at Bud Billiken Parade
In the Mid-1960s, when Muhammad Ali was not allowed to box,
he was ever present on the streets of Chicago.
Click Here
Angela Davis at Bud Billiken Parade
Since 1929 Hundreds of celebrities have participated in the Bud Billlken Parade and Picnic.
Click Here

The Edge of Bronzeville is an Augmented Reality/Transmedia project that examines the rise and fall of public housing and the erosion of public education in Chicago from 1958 to 1978, told through my personal experience growing up in the Harold L. Ickes Housing Projects. Using AR-enabled site markers, archival imagery, oral histories, and interactive gameplay, the project layers memory onto the physical landscape of Bronzeville, allowing users to walk the neighborhood and experience its history as it unfolded, from the promise of the Ickes Homes’ construction to the disinvestment, demolition, and displacement that followed.

The project combines documentary storytelling with game mechanics, letting users unlock historical layers, testimonies, and artifacts tied to specific locations, connecting personal narrative to the broader policy decisions that reshaped Black Chicago.

I will develop partnerships with the Chinese American Museum of Chicago, the National Public Housing Museum, the Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Public Schools, and other cultural and civic organizations to access archival records, oral histories, and institutional knowledge needed to build an accurate and richly sourced narrative.

For more information about this project email me, Floyd Webb, at floydwebb@gmail.com