People Wasn't Made to Burn - A True Story of Housing, Race, and Murder in Chicago

In 1947, James Hickman shot and killed the landlord he believed was responsible for a tragic fire that took the lives of four of his children on Chicago ''s West Side. But a vibrant defense campaign, exposing the working poverty and racism that led to his crime, helped win Hickman ''s freedom.

With a true-crime writer ''s eye for suspense and a historian ''s depth of knowledge, Joe Allen unearths the
compelling story of a campaign that stood up to Jim Crow well before the modern civil rights movement had even begun.

As deteriorating housing conditions and an accelerating foreclosure crisis combine to form a hauntingly similar set of circumstances to those that led to the Hickman case, Allen ''s book restores to prominence a previously unknown story with profound relevance today.