Communities in Chicago

Chicago, Illinois was a popular city in the early United States. Chicago was a center for trade due to the water sources running through it. The two rivers located in Chicago, the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, connected the city to the Mississippi river and Lake Michigan. Railroads through Chicago also helped it become a transportation center in the United States. Thousands of immigrants came to Chicago every year. Settlers and visitors arrived constantly by wagon, ship, or even train. There were around ten railroads that congregated in the city. Many people saw Chicago as a great opportunity. Merchants, tradesmen, and business from the East Coast scrambled to the new businesses opportunities in the city. In 1870, only one year before the Great Fire, around 300,000 people lived in Chicago.

Chicago from the1920s through the 1940s was the melting pot of America, with its multitude of vastly different people and different types of housing and living conditions. Around the early 1920s in Chicago, 80 percent of the undeveloped city were immigrants from Europe and their children. A majority of the houses in Chicago in the 1920s were set up to improve immigrants’ living conditions. These houses were often large complexes in which immigrants lived together in and were provided meals and tutoring in English. After World War I ended in 1918, many people moved from small rural communities in the Midwest to Chicago. This resulted in the construction of many large apartment buildings in place of old townhouses. In large cities like Chicago,

A large influx of colored people created many problems. First, there was a major problem in the availability in housing, of which was responded to with racism. This is the root for the hatred between the black and white communities. There wasn’t enough housing in the “black belt” community, so Negroes began to spill into white neighborhoods. The very existence of a colored person in a neighborhood would lower the property values. When a house was sold to a colored person, the rent for the house would be higher than the previous, white owner’s rent. Real Estate companies believed that “it is a matter of common knowledge that house after house…whether under white or black agents, comes to the Negro at an increased rental” (Sandburg 46). They sold housing despite the fact that “the Negro in Chicago, paid a lower wage than the white workman” (47), and that black people would have

I lived my early years in a suburb of Chicago (LaGrange) that was all white, as far as I knew. There was a part of town that was literally “across the tracks.” I’m not sure of the racial

The development of the suburbs has been appointed to be the result of the “white flight” from the inner cities. In the 1950’s black Americans moved northward to cities to find industrial jobs that were within walking distance. Discrimination in cities worsened, crime rates increased and educational facilities’ credentials weakened or gained bad reputations. The upper-class families left the cities and mass migrated to the suburbs to escape the increasing crime rates and worsening conditions. This movement was later termed the “white flight”. Every American wanted to begin building the “ideal family”: two parents, two children and maybe a pet or two. This newly invented middle-class prospered as

After WW II, Chicago’s Housing Authorities chose to construct more public housing options for its Chicago residents. The Public Housing Administration highly advised against building high-rises for Chicago families. However, money was very limited for this project which soon became a huge factor in the while planning and constructing new public housing. Despite Daley’s attempt to build the Taylor homes as a low-rise project, construction began on the high-rises in 1960, which would later become the longest housing project in the world. Some speculate that low-high rises would have been built adorably, if the land on the outskirts of the city had been made available. However, a white alderman opposed the idea of having blacks occupy houses in the same wards as them. During construction it was estimated that that average family contained roughly six people. But, realistically that was an inaccurate estimate, as extended families often lived in these apartments. Overtime, the housing projects became horrific and overcrowded with problem tenants. “One resident complained in 1965: The World looks on all of us project rats, living on a reservation like untouchables (Pacyga, Chicago, 334).” In addition to the housing problems, citizens accused Daley of purposely segregating the housing projects from the rest of Chicago (Daley:  The Last Boss). Citizens claim that the Dan Ryan Expressway route was shifted to reinforce the border between Daley's native Bridgeport and the Black Belt to the east (Encyclopedia, Chicago). Shortly after Martin Luther King’s death, looting and rioting swept through Chicago Black west side. Mayor Daley, issued an order that was broadcast: “shoot to kill any arsonist … with a Molotov cocktail in his hand." This did not settle well with the Chicago community and especially the Africa-American people. Daley is often remembered as one of Chicago’ most powerful

Northern urban areas amid the nineteenth city were much more incorporated than their counterparts. There was also less residential separation between races. African Americans, American-born whites, and immigrants shared neighborhoods. These living examples guaranteed that every day contacts between blacks and whites were more common, yet it varied with economic and political conditions. It was exceptionally common for African Americans and Germans to have generally agreeable associations, particularly in contrast to the violence that marked contact between blacks and Irish immigrants. In urban areas, for example, Boston, New York, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, hostility between these groups in some cases erupted into open and bloody. Irish workers shared with these blacks a

     Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans uprooted from their homes in the South and moved North to the big cities in search of jobs. They left the South because of racial violence and economic discrimination. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many migrants moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the upper west side of Manhattan. In the 1920's, Harlem became the worlds largest black community; also home to a highly diverse mix of cultures. This unprecedented outburst of creative activity exposed their unique culture and encouraged

Martin Luther King Jr.’s failed housing campaign and the Bronzeville Project exhibit this disjointedness through black middle class Chicagoans ignoring the socioeconomic class divisions within Bronzeville by using institutionalized racial barriers as a conduit to produce a narrative of collective discriminatory practices faced by all blacks preventing social and financial equity for the race. However, these

The original city of Chicago was a small

I learned that every state has its own rough areas and good areas. I have visited Chicago, IL and it remind me a lot as New York City except for it being windy some of the time. The only thing I should have done in Chicago is watched the Chicago Bears, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs. Working from home must be relaxing and stress free. My wife is currently looking for work and she been searching on working from home. Congratulations receiving your Associate Degrees and I know you are very proud of yourself. Achieving a education goals give you the strives to accomplish more. The good thing is that you closer to a Bachelor Degree in a blink of an

The city of Chicago is well known for its urban setting and advanced industry that's centrally located in the heart of the United States. For years, Chicago has been a passageway for goods and an epicenter for commerce which feeds an intricate economy. Moreover, Chicago is a city filled with a high degree of diversity. Chicago’s diversity, both through class and culture, has been the forefront for national movements advocating for labor and civil rights. In the collection of poems, Chicago Poems, Carl Sandburg explores the many layers of Chicago, while sharing his own perceptions of the city.

The poem “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg personifies the city has a person, and later on in the story it tells/ explains how the city is a good place but has its flaws. “And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.” (Sandburg). This evidence shows that the city personified, also in

Not only were the living conditions awful, but the opportunities to move into nicer places were even worse. In the History of African Americans in Chicago, on Wikipedia, it was written that, “Redlining is the practice of denying key services (like home loans and insurance) or increasing their costs for residents in a defined geographical area.” When it came to a colored person trying to move into a white neighborhood, it usually didn’t end very well. As a child

If you’re looking moving to a different neighborhood whats the first thing you do? See whats around that’s convenient for you and if its safe to live there. For about fourteen years I lived in Beverly, Chicago It was convenient for my mother because it was close to my grandfather, school, and work. Her job was located in Evergreen Park which was nearby, these two neighborhoods are very similar but yet have their differences. Some of the there similarities are they both mostly have whites, big houses, and the blocks are quiet. Their differences are Beverly has candy stores and parks, Beverly police, but not everyday stores people shop at. Evergreen, on the other hand, has a mall, Evergreen police, and convenient stores people shop at every