Unforgotten51: PORTRAITS OF LIFE

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Over two semesters, journalism students at Roosevelt University conducted a working investigative reporting project on the unsolved strangulation murders of at least 51 Chicago women over two decades. More than three-quarters of these women are African American, according to the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit research organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. MAP studies homicide and has used algorithms to conclude that the murders are the work of one or more serial killers. Chicago police continue to investigate. The project seeks to humanize the victims whose bodies were discarded, in many cases, in alleys on the West and South Sides like yesterday’s trash. The project includes narrative story telling and multimedia, culminating in this the final published project.

MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, Roosevelt University’s dedication to “the enlightenment of the human spirit” shines brightest in our unique commitment to social justice. Since 1045, Roosevelt University has been nationally recognized for offering a transformative education that empowers qualified students to consider their greater place within a global society.

Our view of social justice is based in a belief that fairness, honesty, integrity and impartiality should resonate throughout every institution within a civil society...

The university's journalism program, its faculty and its students, embrace that mantra and seeks by public affairs journalism projects like this one, to make a difference by contributing to the public discourse.

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PORTRAITS OF LIFE