SCLC Moves North: The 1966 Chicago Campaign

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SCLC Moves NorthThe 1966 Chicago Campaign

• HIS 265

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Background Chicago

• Chicago had de facto residential segregation like
  most Northern cities
• Redlining made it difficult to get mortgages
  insurance on the South West Sides
• 285 out of 316 Chicago insurance companies
  redlined in 1960
• Rates sometimes 700 higher for blacks
• Blacks had separate National Association of Real
  Estate Brokers because excluded from white
  National Association of Real Estate Boards
• Black homeownership increased 103 from 1960-1970
• Chicago NAACP was largest chapter over 50,000
  members by 1960
• 10,000 marched to GOP convention in July to
  demand civil rights plank in platform
• Aug. 29 wade-in at Rainbow Beach touched off riot
  when Velma Murphy hit with rock

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Progress in Residential Desegregation

• 1866 Civil Rights Act barred housing
  discrimination, but govt couldnt enforce
• Supreme Court ruled in NAACPs favor
• Buchanan v. Warley (1917) struck down residential
  segregation ordinances
• Shelly v. Kraemer (1948) outlawed restrictive
  covenants
• 1962 Housing Act ended discrimination in
  federally owned or funded housing

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Focusing on de facto segregation

• Watts Riot (1965) shook King
• Illustrated that gains had only addressed de jure
  segregation in South
• L.A. blacks were openly hostile to King
• SCLC invited to Chicago by Jim Bevel, head of
  Coordinating Council of Community Organizations

King Young, 1965
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Chicago Freedom Movement, 1966

• Launched Jan. 1966 with 2 main goals
• Ending de facto residential segregation
  challenging Chicago Real Estate Board
• Operation Breadbasket (headed by Jesse Jackson)
  put pressure on businesses to hire more African
  Americans
• Supporters opponents
• Supporters United Packinghouse Workers United
  Auto Workers, Catholic Interracial Council,
  Chicago Conference on Religion Race
• Opponents Rev. Joseph Jackson (NBC head), Mayor
  Richard Daley Black Muslims
• Campaign had only modest success
• Riots in mid-July left 2 dead over 80 injured
• Threatened march into Cicero led to Palmer House
  Summit (Aug. 29), where Chicago Real Estate Board
  agreed to withdraw opposition to open housing