Invasion of Faith: The Children Smile

The Children Smile

In Chicago, in 2022 alone, at least 687 murders were recorded by Chicago Police and 2,787 people were shot. The total over the last five years: 3,320 Murders; 15,751 people shot.

Each summer, the Faith Community of St. Sabina holds anti-violence march aimed at curbing the violence and bringing hope to a besieged community. Despite the gunfire that makes life on the South and West Side a tenuous proposition, the children smile. Video and Poem by John W. Fountain

Fountain was winner in December 2021 of a 1st Place National Association of Black Journalists "Salute To Excellence Award" in newspaper column writing. He and his students' project, "Unforgotten 51," about the unsolved murders of mostly 51 African-American women in Chicago, also won a 1st place NABJ award. In November 2021, Fountain won second place Dorothy Storck Award from the Chicago Journalists Association for his column. In 2016, 2014 and 2011, he was the recipient of the Peter Lisagor Award for best news column or commentary at a daily newspaper with a circulation of more than 250,000. (Click on photo to read more of Fountain's work.)

SAMANTHA LATSON

Samantha Latson is a M.S. Journalism student at Indiana University. She is a reporter for the Arnolt Center of Investigative Journalism. She is also a freelance writer. Her work has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Crusader. She was also a reporter-writer for the Unforgotten 51 project that examined the mostly unsolved cases of 51 mostly African American women murdered in Chicago since 2001, and believed to be the work of a serial killer. She was winner of a 2021 National Association of Black Journalists "Salute to Excellence Award" for the "Unforgotten 51" project. She is a graduate of Roosevelt University. (Click on photo to learn more)

Pages

The Children Smile