In Throop Street

Throop Street, a Polish-Italian section of Chicago, did not take to Mr. & Mrs. John Henry Strong, their son and a niece. Scarcely had the Negro family settled in the second-floor apartment of an old, unpainted house when things began to happen to them. Rocks shattered five of their windows; the neighborhood buzzed with threats that the house would be burned down.

Last week the Rev. Douglas Cedarleaf, 31, decided to take a hand. First, he preached a sermon, "Vandalism in Throop Street," to his Erie Chapel Presbyterian Church (white) congregation (which included the Strongs). Then he taught them the great Negro anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. And then he asked them to escort the Strongs home. Some 135 of the congregation's 175 did. Throop Street heard them coming: they were all singing the anthem. At the Strongs' doorstep they formed a circle. Curious neighbors leaning out of their windows saw the minister give the Strongs a Bible, heard him preach another sermon on tolerance.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.