On a recent Sunday morning, Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan and school board president Michael Scott sat down for breakfast with Congressman Danny Davis and state senator Rickey Hendon in the back room of a soul food restaurant on the west side. They must have expected a quiet discussion in the otherwise empty space, but the party was crashed by some activists with a video camera in hand, and the 11-minute tape they made–part Roger and Me, part Punk’d–is now circulating around town as an example of classic behind-closed-doors politicking.
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Hendon and Davis both denounced the closings. Hendon was particularly critical: at a February 9 board hearing he threatened to use his clout in Springfield to cut off funding for the system if the board closed the schools.
But Derrick Harris, one of the video makers, was skeptical. “It’s called fronting,” he says: elected officials thunder for the cameras, then become party to the deal. Harris says he got a chance to “expose the charade” when, on February 17, someone tipped him about Duncan’s plans to meet with Davis and Hendon at Edna’s, a popular soul food restaurant. “On the west side folks know–if the deal’s going down you meet at Edna’s,” Harris says. “As soon as we heard about this we knew they needed a plumber at the board. ‘Cause we know some shit was going down.”
As they look up from their plates of biscuits, bacon, and eggs their expressions range from surprise to irritation to sheepishness. Then the looks grow steely. They aren’t strangers–everybody knows everybody else. Scott grew up on the west side (he still lives in North Lawndale) and has long been one of Mayor Daley’s point men there. Davis and Hendon have represented west-side districts for years. Harris is a familiar fixture at rallies and protests. McKinley and Carter are the wild cards. They helped form the Voices of the Ex-Offenders, an activist group, but they’re not party regulars–in fact, they endorsed Alan Keyes over Barack Obama in the 2004 senate race. The person who looks most uncomfortable is Duncan, who drinks from his glass of water or looks down at the table whenever the camera turns his way.
“Sellout crew–this about school business here?” McKinley asks.
“Don’t fuck with me,” Hendon mutters.
He approaches McKinley. He puts his hand over the camera. “Danny, Danny,” Hendon cautions.
