Civil Rights in Chicago

1. Civil Rights in Chicago

2. Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come

3. WW II

4. 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

5. 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”

6. 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

7. Kerner Commission 1967

8. 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