Civil Rights in Chicago
Dec 30, 2015
Civil Rights in Chicago
Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come
WW II
The Great Migration
• 70 % of African-Americans lived in cities in 1965
• Businesses refused to stay in the newly formed Black neighborhoods
• In 1965 only 15% of professional, managerial, or clerical jobs were occupied by African-Americans; while 44% were white
Al Raby Invites Martin Luther King Jr. to Chicago 1965-1966
Along with Mayor Daley, the three men attempted to open housing for African-Americans Chicago was seen as the most segregated city in the United States.
Overall, King was seen as a failure in Chicago
Daley wanted to keep the city segregated
Keep middle class white families from fleeing to suburbs
MLK Jr. at Gage Park
“I think the people from Mississippi ought to come to Chicago to learn how to hate”
Black Power Movement
Rejection of nonviolent ways of MLK
Didn’t agree with ideal of siding cooperating with whites
Felt as though only black people should control the black struggle
Racial Distinction over Racial Assimilation
Kerner Commission 1967
Kerner Commission 1967
White society should be blamed for isolating and neglecting African Americans
Urged legislation to promote racial integration and to enrich slums—primarily through the creation of jobs, job training programs, and decent housing
The United States was : “moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and
unequal.”
Unless conditions changed, the country faced a “system of ’apartheid’” in its major cities.
Reactions: 100 riots in April of 1968 alone