The Maxwell Street Market was among the oldest and largest public open-air urban street markets in the U.S.. It was dismantled by the University of Illinois and the City of Chicago. The City decided its last day would be August 28, 1994.
The Market was often misunderstood by people who have never been there to walk through it. They considered it backward, an unwanted piece of the Third World, and a relic whose time had finally passed. While the Market was not perfect, its flaws were fixable and they were minor compared to the gifts it bestowed -- a weekly festival giving economic and spiritual sustenance to the poor. It was not the bargains. It was never the bargains (well maybe a little). It was the people that were the attraction.
Below are excerpts from a show which originally ran at the time the fate of the old market was still being decided. The aim of the show was to illustrate that the Maxwell Street Market was alive and well and that it continued to serve Chicago's inner-city poor and minority populations just as it always had since its beginnings in 1870. This exhibit featured photographs of the Market taken in 1994 (just before its destruction), quotations by vendors and shoppers, and essays. In our view, at the end, the Market appeared timeless.
Like Jerusalem, the Maxwell Street Market is especially important to three different groups. For Maxwell Street the area is dear to Jews, African-Americans, and Hispanics - with some Italians, Poles, Greeks, Koreans and Muslims on the side. Eastern European Jews, fleeing from pogroms, settled in Chicago on Maxwell Street as their original neighborhood and commercial center. African-Americans, migrating from the South ("The Great Migration"), came to Maxwell Street and it became the birthplace of urban blues music - the music, southern hospitality, and celebration is still there. Mexican-Americans pray at the nearby St. Francis church and make La Calle Maxwell Mercado a weekly Hispanic festival.
The Maxwell Street Market is also in keeping with Jewish religious traditions. Maimonides wrote in the Mishneh Torah that there are eight degrees of tsedekah (providing charity). The highest form of charity is to help people help themselves toward becoming self-sufficient: the greatest charity is to enable the poor to earn a living. That high ethical standard is embodied in the Maxwell Street Market.
Maxwell Street is a refuge from the vicissitudes of the present urban and national economy. Not only are goods recycled there but people are recycled as well. The unemployed, people on welfare, the handicapped, and the homeless use the market as a way- station to regain their footing in life. The Maxwell Street Market is needed more than ever. It is an uplifting community. People who use the Market are grateful for it and don't want it taken away. It's a multi-cultural, grassroots, peace promoting jubilee, and is the soul of Chicago.
To really understand the significance of Maxwell Street one must understand its spiritual quality. Like religion, it guides us and celebrates who we are and why we are here. Difficult to fully grasp in its totality, the Maxwell Street Market is best understood by seeing it through the thoughts and images of the many different people who have been touched by it.
"God" is frequently heard in the Maxwell Street Market: "God bless you" is spoken by people collecting donations for their church; "God will protect this Market" is expressed by community activists; and "This market is a gift from God" is heard from vendors. But God is present in the Market in a more concrete way than mere words of hope and thanks.
God appears in the Maxwell Street Market through the terrestrial assistance it provides the poor, the message of self-help it contains, and the way racial, ethnic, and class harmony is promoted. This show was inspired by an essay written by Reverend George Cairns of the People's Church. The following is an excerpt of that essay:
Maxwell Street is a raw and human place. It is a humble place. It is a place where people, some of whom are outcasts of our society, gather to serve one another. It is a place where Christ is found. Remember that Jesus did not dine with the elite of his society. He hung out with the outcasts. If he physically walked among us today, he would not be shopping on North Michigan Avenue -- he would more likely be found on Maxwell Street. He would find the human scale, the smells and sights, the many languages, the struggles engaged in and kindnesses given on Maxwell Street more like home.