New documentary, "When the West Side Burned," explores unrest in Chicago after assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

A new documentary explores the uprising on the city's West Side following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

The Chicago Jazz Philharmonic is marking Black History Month with a concert inspired by the documentary, which will follow a screening.

"When the West Side Burned" tells the story of the Chicagoans dealing with grief, outrage, and frustration after Dr. King's assassination, who took their emotions to the streets in the form of riots, looting, and arson. Chicago's West Side saw the greatest impact locally.

A total of 11 people died in the riots, and dozens of buildings were destroyed.

The documentary was produced for WTTW's "Chicago Stories" by Dan Andries, who said it all started when his head of production at connected him with a woman who experienced the unrest firsthand. This led to interviews with a total of 18 people who were on the scene during the uprising.

But the documentary does not focus just on the unrest, but on the conditions and context that led up to it.

"What we did was really make a documentary that talks about the Black experience on the West Side, what it was like after World War II, and what happened during the 60s that led up to this," said Andries. "The key thing was Dr. King was living on the West Side in 1966, trying to open up housing and other things. So he was here for social justice. And the fact that we could call him a Chicagoan for that time, very powerful thing."

Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. As pointed out in the notes for the documentary, riots and unrest were seen elsewhere in the country in the hours afterward, and Mayor Richard J. Daley mobilized police downtown — expecting that most of the unrest would be there.

But it was the West Side where chaos erupted. On the morning of April 5, a group of students walked out of high school and led a march in memory of Dr. King. The march grew, and the group was met by police officers who fired a warning shot, according to the documentary notes. There were fights and looting, and by the afternoon, a fire was set at a shop on West Madison Street, according to the documentary notes.

By the evening, there were dozens of fires, and power was out. As noted in a 2018 CBS News Chicago report, there were 600 fires that first night, and more the next night.

"You could see the blaze just leaping from the buildings," retired Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele told CBS News Chicago in 2018. "It looked like an inferno."

Mayor Daley Sr. called in the National Guard, set a curfew, and banned the sale of liquor and guns, according to the notes. In response to criticism that orders to police to shut down the riot weren't clear, the mayor infamously said authorities should "shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand because they are potential murderers" and "shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores in our city."

Daley rescinded the emergency declaration on April 10, and troops left, according to the documentary notes.

By then, 28 blocks of the West Side were in ruins, and more than 200 businesses on Madison Street, Roosevelt Road, and 16th Street had been destroyed.

Coming up on 58 years later, parts of the West Side have still never recovered.

Orbert Davis, artistic director for the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, created the score for "When the West Die Burned."

"The music sets the tone. I mean, it's actually connecting to the feeling," Davis said. "So we can see it, we can hear it, but the music takes it to our heart."

Davis said people may not retain the melody of the music as they watch the documentary, but it matches the emotional content of the historical events — with hope at the end.

On Saturday, Andries and Davis will both be present for a screening of "When the West Side Burned." After the film is screened, Andries will moderate a community discussion with documentary participants and people currently doing community work on the West Side. Finally, Davis will lead a concert with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic.

"You can think of it as a jazz opera, that there's two acts — Before King, when King was in Chicago, and then his death, and then the result of the community," Davis said. "But I didn't want to draw much emphasis into the negative side, of even looking at it as a crime, as much as, as you said, grief and despair. So it's something that's been building up for a long time, and then there was just simply an explosion of feelings."

The screening will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, at the Kehrein Center for the Arts, at 5628 W. Washington Blvd. in Chicago's South Austin neighborhood. Andries' community discussion follows at 6 p.m., and the concert at 7 p.m.

The event will also feature food and beverages from West Side vendors.