Winthrop PHOTOGRAPHS

Thanks to the generosity of members of the family who shared some of their personal photographs, here is a brief glimpse at people, events, and places that played a key role in holding the Winthrop Family together for 120 years, from 1906, when the first members of the family are believed to have migrated north from Tennessee and Kansas, to the present. This is a remarkable story of grit, resilience, and loss, but equally, of pleasure and joy, caring and love. Several members of the family articulated this sentiment, in different ways and at different moments, but always with the same refrain: “We were never without love on the Winthrop block.” Although members of the family have not lived on Winthrop Avenue for decades, as Emilie Lockridge stated, echoing others: “This is where I belong.” These are some of the images that capture that joy, that sense of belonging, despite the ubiquity of violence, poverty, and segregation. They are images of the different people that make up “the Winthrop family,” marking events and places that capture their memories of life on the 4600 block of Winthrop Avenue. If you have additional photographs - of the family or the physical and social landscape of the 4600 block of Winthrop Ave - and would like to share them, we would love to hear from you!

Austin Family Lineage

Starting with the marriage of Gilbert Austin and Johnnie Mae Jenkins Austin, this family lineage includes the Austins, the Taylors, and the Pumphreys. Members of this family included famous boxers such as Gilbert Austin. Johnnie Mae was Earl Jenkins’ sister, creating a strong bond across families and knitting the Winthrop family together even tighter.

Brien Family Lineage

Dubbed the ‘Mayor of Winthrop’ and the ‘Queen of Detente,’ Sophia Brien was one of the fierce matriarchs of Winthrop Avenue. Her lineage includes the Gordons, McKeevers, Johnsons, Giles and Price families. Her mother was also a Hall, weaving connections across family lineages. Mama Sophie and her daughters were disciplinarians and larger-than-life figures who knit the community together. But they always “disciplined with love” as those interviewed stated, and will forever be remembered for that.

Hall Family Lineage

With a history in the Uptown neighborhood that dates back to the turn of the 20th century when Mallie Jenkins migrated to Chicago from Tennessee, and a few years later, married Matthew Hall, this family spans at least five generations. This family lineage includes the Halls, the Browns, the Minors, the Coles, the Trumans, and the Clemons. Mallie Jenkins’s brothers were Earl Jenkins and Amos Jenkins, and her sister was Johnnie Mae Austin, further suturing the families together. Members of this family also include the entrepreneur, Aunt “Ruthie” Miller, who, among other things, ran a boarding house that became a hub for much of the social activity on Winthrop Avenue, among many more memorable figures.

Jenkins Family Lineage

The Jenkins family’s story in Uptown starts with the marriage of Odessa Kinnerley-Jenkins and Earl Jenkins in Decherd, Tennessee and their migration to Chicago in the 1910s. The family lineage in Chicago spans seven generations and includes the Jenkins, the Kennerleys, the Bakers, the Clarks, the Wrightsells, and the Simmons. According to some records, Odessa Jenkins traces her lineage to the mythical-historical figure of Kunta Kinte, from Alex Haley’s ‘Roots.’ Members of the family also included Judson Jenkins, the first black detective on the Chicago police force.

Other Families on “the Avenue”

While there isn’t space to include all the families on the 4600 block of Winthrop Avenue, each and every one of them were a part of the Winthrop Family, and are both remembered by others, and remember their own lives on the block fondly, however short their occupancy. The Bell, Wade, Lewis, Battle, Thurman, Gaines, Davis, Beatty, and Jones were some, among many, of the other families on the block.

Winthrop Physical Landscape

Although most of the families do not live on Winthrop Avenue any longer, their memories of the physical space and what it symbolized for them - a safe, warm, loving, community, a carefree childhood spent playing with cousins in the playground, on Cricket Hill, biking up and down the block, sitting on the rocking chair with grandma on the porch and watching life on the block, among many others - live on. Here are some images that capture what the landscape looked like, physically, including the commemoration of these memories more recently in the form of the Winthrop Family Community Garden.

WINTHROP SOCIAL LANDSCAPE

Capturing social events such as holiday celebrations, block parties, Sunday “pot roast” dinners, Church gatherings, and reunions, these pictures bring the vibrant social life of the block alive! It was events like this, week after week, year after year, long after members of the family had migrated elsewhere, that knit the family together and kept them connected for over a century! We can all learn a thing or two about sustaining relationships from these stories…