Linda Gartz

I'm writing about topics covered in my book, "Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago." In this blog I'll write about struggles facing families and marriages, redlining, race, mental illness, coming of age in the 1960s (and how it relates to today), and my Chicago West Side community, where my family lived and worked most of the twentieth century. They left behind a vast trove of letters, diaries, and artifacts, recording Chicago life in real time. They faced war, madness, death, loneliness, discord, and riots, but soldiered on in one of Chicago's most devastated communities. I'm sharing my discoveries on this this blog and two others: "Family Archaeologist" and "Letters of a World War II Airman," as well as stories from my book, to open a window on Chicago's past through the people who lived it. I'm a writer and television producer, focusing on the stories of real people—their struggles and triumphs.