Lloyd Newman was surprised that he hadn’t been LeAlan Jones’ first call when Jones was approached about making a documentary that would become 1992’s award-winning broadcast feature “Ghetto Life 101.”
The radio documentary, which examined life in public housing on the South Side through the experiences of the two young boys, garnered the 13-year-olds an array of prestigious journalism prizes, including a Peabody Award. The broadcast, made in conjunction with producer David Isay, made the youths the youngest to receive the award. It became a book and eventually a movie.
But Newman wasn’t the first choice to join Jones, despite a family history he wanted to share. His mother had died years prior, and his father had substance abuse issues. He lived with his siblings in the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Bronzeville.
“I didn’t necessarily think that he would want to expose all of the things that his family had gone through” said LeAlan Jones, Newman’s storytelling partner on the radio doc and longtime friend. “But when I mentioned it to him, he said, ‘Man, why didn’t you ask me?’ and next thing I knew, we called Dave (Isay), and the rest is history.”
Newman lived his life fearlessly, Jones said, despite being shunned by his peers after the documentary’s release.
“He spoke the truth, whether you liked it or not,” his brother, Michael Newman, remembered. “He was tough as nails.”
The documentary was turned into a book, “Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago,” and a movie, “Our America.” The pair made a second documentary, “Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse,” for which they won another Peabody and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.
Lloyd Newman died Dec. 7 of complications from a life-long battle with sickle cell anemia. He was 43.
Newman was a loving and hands-on uncle to 10 nieces and nephews and 10 great-nieces and -nephews, his loved ones say.
“He just wanted to be in a position to be an anchor in his family,” Jones said.
He was fulfilled working at a public library in DeKalb and went on speaking engagements.
Newman was able to secure the job only after being exonerated in 2021 for a wrongful drug conviction.
He was one of more than 200 people whose convictions were wiped out after allegations of misconduct by former Chicago Police Department Sgt. Ronald Watts came to light. Watts picked up Newman at the Ida B. Wells development in 2006 in a drug arrest for which Newman was framed. “He thought it was a blessing that his life exposed corruption,” Jones said.
Jones marveled at Newman’s wish to remain quiet and out of the spotlight after his wrongful conviction.
“He was just kind of like a cowboy that rode off into the dust at the end, knowing that he had done something significant and credible and historic,” Jones said of Newman’s fight to exonerate himself. “It didn’t matter to him. It was like water under the bridge. And that’s how he lived his life.”
Sickle cell, which also claimed the lives of two of his sisters, hindered Newman’s physical strength, but his loved ones describe him as “resilient.”
“He was able to utilize the documentary to be able to get some exposure for his life and essentially, kind of change the trajectory of his family,” Jones said. “He achieved that. I think he was at a point where he was in the process of enjoying that phase of life.”
“He wanted the world to see that good people can come from those kinds of circumstances and be something in life,” said Michael Newman. “That’s what he stood for and made sure that people knew that you can come from a harsh situation and it doesn’t have to define who you are as a person.”
Lloyd Newman is survived by his brother and two other siblings, Lydell Newman and Erica Newman, and a host of nieces and nephews.
