But he wasn’t surprised by the attention and support Highland Park received because it’s a predominantly white Chicago suburb, he says. Gun violence is so normalized on Chicago’s south and west sides that it doesn’t receive the same concern, he says. “I thought there would be more of an outcry over a 4-year-old whose life was taken, and I just didn’t see it,” says Gregg. “We see it all the time, the disparity in how black kids and brown kids are treated.” As the nation was shocked by the premeditated mass shooting in Highland Park, residents an hour away on Chicago’s south and west sides mourned a death and injury toll that exceeded that of Highland Park. This July 4th weekend in Chicago, at least eight people were fatally shot and 68 injured in gun violence. Gregg and community supporters say they are not comparing which tragedy is worse and stand in solidarity with the Highland Park community. They just want to see the same compassion and urgency to find answers as seen in Highland Park on the South and West Side — where they say there’s almost an expectation and acceptance of gun violence with little attention or resources. According to data from the Chicago Police Department, the city of Chicago saw a 53 percent decrease in homicides this year compared to last July 4th weekend. But residents say that doesn’t diminish the sense of outrage they felt after last weekend’s gun violence. In 2021, Chicago experienced one of its deadliest years in the past quarter century with nearly 800 homicides. MJ was among the youngest victims. In the summer alone, 1,606 people were shot in a single quarter.
“All these children fell to the ground”
Corey Brooks, founder and senior pastor of Chicago’s New Beginnings Church, says on the city’s South and West sides, there is a constant fear among black and brown youth that they will be the next victim of gun violence. He remembers being on a playground with a group of kids last summer when shots rang out and all the kids playing in the area immediately fell to the ground. “In any other neighborhood, the kids probably would have run away, but all these kids fell to the ground,” he says. “What a sad comment these guys know, ‘OK, somebody’s shooting, hit the ground running.’ Brooks is also the founder and CEO of Project Helping Others Obtain Destiny (HOOD), a nonprofit organization focused on ending cycles of poverty and violence that provides mentorship to residents of Woodlawn and Englewood, Chicago. Brooks says predominantly black and brown neighborhoods like Woodlawn and Englewood are heavily affected by gun violence, along with other communities on the South and West sides like Austin, Roseland, Back of the Yards, Humboldt Park and other. What binds these communities together is poverty and a lack of resources, which means they are neglected, he added. In Highland Park, the median household income is $147,067, according to 2020 Census data, more than five times the median income in Woodlawn of $25,450, according to a 2021 report by the Metropolitan Planning Service of Chicago. After the mass shooting in Highland Park, politicians such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Senator Tammy Duckworth visited the community. TJ Grooms, assistant pastor of Chicago’s New Beginnings Church, who is also a director at Project HOOD, says he wishes these politicians had also visited Chicago’s south and west sides and shown the same persistence in offering condolences to families affected by armed violence. on the 4th of July weekend. “If you’re in a position of power, you have to make sure that the same energy and effort that you put into one area is put into the other,” Grooms said. “I’m not going to visit an area like Highland Park and then not show up on the other end of the spectrum.”
They are no longer allowed to be children
Grooms says mental health among black and brown youth on Chicago’s South and West Sides is an important issue in relation to gun violence. Young people are left traumatized and don’t know how to deal with these violent experiences, forcing them into “survival mode” where their childhoods have been stripped away, he added. In the months since MJ’s death, Gregg has also struggled with the trauma and emptiness of losing her only child. But she has also become a youth activist. The weekend MJ was killed still haunts her. She and MJ were in Chicago for Labor Day weekend, visiting from Alabama so he could spend time with his father, Mychal Moultry Sr. As MJ and his father tied up and braided their hair at a family friend’s apartment in Woodlawn, bullets flew through the window, striking the boy twice in the head. That same holiday weekend, five more people were killed and at least 61 others injured in gun violence across the city. A few days later, Gregg and Moultrie Sr. made funeral arrangements. When a family loses a child to gun violence, funeral costs can cause further hardship and pain. In April, the Illinois House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the Mychal Moultry Jr. Funeral and Burial Act, in which the state provides funeral and burial assistance to low-income families for children under 17 who are murdered by armed violence. Gregg says it was great to see the state relieve some of the financial burden, but she wants to see lawmakers focus more on preventing gun violence in the first place so there aren’t funerals to pay for. “They’re two completely different worlds,” says Greg. “We were able to move forward with this legislation within about six or seven months after MJ was passed, but the laws to actually prevent this from happening in the first place are still at an impasse.” Gregg says people are being desensitized to gun violence in Chicago and the impact it has on youth, families and the larger community. Brooks says he wants black and brown youth in neighborhoods like Woodlawn to live in safe environments and develop to their full potential. If the same level of care and compassion was shown on the South and West Sides of Chicago as in Highland Park, he says there would be more resources and solutions directed to communities to combat gun violence. In the wake of the mass shooting in Highland Park, community members left behind strollers, lawn chairs, bicycles, shoes, toys, blankets and more. On Chicago’s South and West Sides, Grooms says the tangible items aren’t what’s lost when mass shootings happen in the community almost every day. “What’s left behind is innocence, what’s left behind is sensitivity, what’s left behind is hope, what’s left behind most of all is this justice,” says Grooms. “We don’t get justice for our babies and our teenagers who are shot and killed, and it’s very rare that we see the people who kill someone brought to justice.”
