Created Equal: Award-winning podcast retells the Lenard Clark case
“You Didn’t See Nothin” recounts the events surrounding the race-related attack on 13-year-old Lenard Clark.
In 1997, a 13-year-old Black boy named Lenard Clark was attacked by a group of older white teenagers in Bridgeport, Chicago.
The attack was so severe that Clark fell into a coma. Chicago’s response revealed how underlying racial dynamics in its neighborhoods worked against Black Americans’ pursuit of justice for racial beatings.
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This case motivated Yohance Lacour to become a journalist. His award-winning podcast, “You Didn’t See Nothin,” recounts the events surrounding the attack. The seven-part series focuses less on the attack and more on public and media responses.
Lacour joined Stephen Henderson on Created Equal to discuss the case.
Guest
Yohance Lacour is a journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting for his podcast’s retelling of the race-related beating of Lenard Clark. Lacour explains how the Chicago mob’s involvement in unions stalled the push for Clark’s justice because Black Americans relied on them to funnel jobs into their neighborhoods.
Frankie Caruso, the white 19-year-old convicted in the beating, served just two years of an eight-year sentence. According to Lacour, Frankie’s father, Frank Caruso Sr., held a lot of influence in Bridgeport and used that to shield is son from a harsher punishment.
“The Carusos relied on those relationships and called those folks to do some favors for them. And this particular return favor was to kind of silence their constituents and try to change this call for justice and call for prison time for these young Bridgeport men into a call for leniency and forgiveness, which was just ridiculous and offensive.”
Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.
