ancient cities

in the metropolitan area shifted dramatically. New
single-family houses, constructed on the mostly
undeveloped northwest and southwest sides, made
it possible for the city’s White population to spread
out. White Chicagoans also moved outward to
newly incorporated and developing suburbs. Some
men used automobiles to commute to jobs that
remained within the city, but increasingly commercial
and manufacturing enterprises kept suburbanites
outside the city for work as well.
African Americans, however, continued to live
and work within Chicago’s boundaries. Neither the
South Side’s Bronzeville area nor the small West Side
settlement could contain the sheer numbers of new
migrants. As African Americans sought new housing
opportunities in blocks adjacent to ones already
established as areas of Black
residence, Whites responded
first by resisting their arrival—
sometimes violently—and then
by leaving. In addition, public
authorities used federal urban
renewal monies to clear out
dilapidated Black neighborhoods
and build high-rise public
housing. Although Chicago
Housing Authority staff aspired
to use public housing to promote
racial integration, city
officials and White citizens
blocked these attempts, leaving
Chicago as racially segregated
as it had been prior to
the Second Great Migration.
Chicago’s segregation was
much studied by social scientists,
who used it as a model
for explaining racial settlement
patterns around the nation.
Like other northern cities,
Chicago suffered from postwar
deindustrialization, as
steel, meatpacking, catalog,
and other companies closed
their plants, changed the character
of their operations, and
suburbanized. Nonetheless,
the city’s downtown remained
a center of commercial activity
embodied by the increasing
numbers of skyscrapers
Chicago, Illinois
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constructed after 1955. Modernist architects led by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the firm of Skidmore,
Owings and Merrill contributed designs such as the
John Hancock Center (1969) and Sears Tower
(1974)—which was the world’s tallest building until
the completion of the Petronas Towers in Kuala
Lumpur in 1998. Mayor Richard J. Daley (1955–
1976) carefully managed the postwar redevelopment
process, brokering some land deals personally.
Daley, operating on the theory that revitalization
would spread outward from a strong center, focused
on preserving the vitality of the downtown. By contrast,
Mayor Harold Washington (1983–1987), the
city’s first African American mayor, spared some
money and attention for renewing infrastructure
and services to the city’s residential neighborhoods.
A huge steel sculpture of a Puerto Rican flag stands at the gateway to Chicago’s primary
Puerto Rican barrio, which is part of the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
Source: Eric Mathiasen.