Lincoln’s legacy: inequality undermines the American dream

Photo-journalist Jon Lowenstein writes:

I live on the South Side of Chicago and am reminded on a daily basis what structural violence truly means.

For more than a decade I’ve covered the ongoing undeclared war going on in some of America’s poorest and most impoverished places.

From the closing of our local supermarket creating a virtual “food desert” to Mayor Rahm Emmanuel overseeing the largest public school closings in US history; from the daily drumbeat of social violence in the form of young people being shot and killed at exorbitant levels to the constant “stop and frisk” harassment of black youth by police – I use documentary photography and film to show the human cost of systemic inequality.

The reach of a dream unfulfilled

My trip took me to Baltimore, where local press from Lincoln’s time noted how fiercely people mourned the president’s passing. We arrived just in time to witness the beginnings of the protests against the death in custody of black man Freddie Gray.

As in Ferguson last summer, I witnessed an embattled community coming together and fighting to be seen and for the basic rights that many Americans take for granted on a daily basis.

What events like Ferguson and Baltimore have brought back into focus are the daily indignities, intense lack of police accountability and utter inequality that exist in many of the nation’s “ignored” pockets.

Read more: Welcome to Chicago, where someone is shot every four hours

The journey showed the great reach of a dream while also highlighting that we have a long way to go to achieve Lincoln’s promise.

Follow @JonLowenstein on Twitter and on Instagram @jonlowenstein

Lincoln’s Promise features the voices of:

Steve Miller, Justin Gladney, Keisha Baltieri, Melvin Bentley, Kordell Moore, Jang Mi Johnson, Vincent Johnson, Timothy B.

Researcher: Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

Sound design and editor: Phil Batta

Filmed, produced and directed by Jon Lowenstein / NOOR