If on the map you click on Neighborhoods, un-click everything else and press the + button on the left, you will see that five neighborhoods funneled students into Hyde Park High School: Oakland, Kenwood, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore. The population densities of our neighborhoods were the highest ever recorded during our time in high school and are much lower today.
1950 2010
- Oakland 24,464 5,918
- Kenwood 35,705 17,841
- Hyde Park 55,206 25,681
- Woodlawn 80,699 23,410
- South Shore 79,336 49,767
(Statistics for this chapter from Skyscraper Page Forum: Chicago community area populations 1950 vs. 2010)
We were primarily renters of apartments or houses; there were very few owner occupied houses – only about 10% in Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and Kenwood, and 22% in South Shore. Population density was due to many factors: one was the increased Black migration to Chicago after World War II, the increased ability of Blacks to compete economically for housing that was in short supply and the desires of Black “pioneers” to escape ghetto conditions and move to better neighborhoods.
We were born between 1938 and 1940, the children of the late Depression years.
In 1948 the Supreme Court had outlawed restrictive covenants in housing but in 1952 there were still apartment buildings and institutions in White Christian neighborhoods that refused to rent to Jewish or Black families. The well-known example of prejudice was the South Shore Country Club at 71st and Lake Michigan, a White Christian bastion during our time in high school (and my parents were members!). I grew up in a restricted building—Vista Homes on Stony Island Avenue—and discovered the restrictions when my brother and I brought home a Black friend from Bret Harte Elementary and we were sternly chastised because “Negroes (not the term used) can only enter Vista Homes from the service entrances and are not to be guests.” What I did not know then was that on the South Side rents charged to Blacks ranged from 15% to 50% higher than those charged to whites for similar accommodations. Often landlords renting to Blacks modified a large apartment into many smaller apartments, creating crowded conditions.
The Oakland neighborhood was a mixture of Black and Japanese residents, both the victims of housing prejudice but often in conflict with each other. On the website Discover Nikkei (www.discovernikkei.org) a a woman writes: “By the time I was pregnant with our first child, we had moved to a drafty second-floor apartment in the Matsunaga building on South Oakenwald. That winter was so cold that all my houseplants froze. On exceptionally cold days, I would linger at the nearby Walgreens, where elderly ladies from our building also took refuge.” The buildings on Oakenwald were demolished by the Chicago Housing Authority in 1961.
The Kenwood neighborhood consisted of a dense Black population north of 47th Street and a mixed population of Black, Jewish, and White Christians in large houses from 47th to 51st Streets. Between 1950 and 1960 the racial make-up of Kenwood changed: from 3,453 Blacks in 1950 to 34,838 in 1960. In 1950 55% were high school graduates and 15% college graduates, and in 1960 38% were high school graduates and 9% college graduates. The Blackstone Public Library and the George F. Harding Museum at 49th and Lake Park were two of my favorite places to spend time.
West of the railroad track the University of Chicago dominated the Hyde Park neighborhood with a population mixture of White Christians, Jewish, and a few Black families. A predominantly Jewish population lived east of the tracks. Because the University of Chicago aggressively bought apartment buildings in Hyde Park, the population dropped from 55,000 ub 1950 to 45,000 in 1960.
In 1952 the University of Chicago decided that to save its investment it had to buy up properties in Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Woodlawn and planed a large-scale urban renewal. The renewal demolished the first tenement houses alone Lake Park Avenue in 1955 but most of the renewal occurred after 1956. Despite promises to the contrary poor Blacks and White Christians were forced out of their apartments. Our classmate Maurice Dawson, an architect in San Francisco, in 1973 proposed to the South East Chicago Commission housing that would be inexpensive and allow low income residents to remain in their neighborhoods but his proposal was rejected.
The Hyde Park neighborhood also experienced racial change: from 1,757 Blacks in 1950 to 17,163 in 1960. Although the White Christian and Jewish population decreased from 52,000 in 1950 to 27,000 in 1960, Hyde Park was still a predominately White Christian and Jewish neighborhood. Regardless of race or ethnicity, Hyde Park remained an educated neighborhood: in both 1950 and 1960 over 60% graduated from high school, and the number of college graduates increased from 23 to 26%. This would suggest that the Blacks that moved into Hyde Park were upwardly mobile and educated, a theme later developed in Margo Jefferson’s Negroland.
The Woodlawn neighborhood changed during our years in high school: White Christians moved out and Blacks moved in. The poet and writer Gwendolyn Brooks wrote in the 1951 Holiday magazine: “Woodlawn, in the Sixties /meaning from 60th to 67th Streets/, is the elite area of Bronzeville. In great part, it is a neighborhood of brown-brick bungalows and attractive small apartment houses.” In 1950 Woodlawn had 31,000 Blacks and 48,000 White Christians (there were few Jewish or Asians in that neighborhood), in 1960 it had 72,000 Blacks and 8,500 White Christians. In 1950 45% graduated from high school and this dropped to 33% in 1960. In 1950 11% had college degrees and this dropped to 5% in 1960.
The neighborhood that changed the least during our high school years was South Shore, and it was also a bit more like the suburbs since it contained more single family houses than our other neighborhoods. The Hyde Park school district only took in the area north of 71st Street, but the statistics here are for the whole neighborhood that included areas south of 7lst. South Shore contained a mixed population of Jewish and White Christian families. Of the almost 80,000 people who lived in South Shore, there were 182 Blacks in 1950 and 7,000 in 1960. 60% of these folks were high school graduates in 1950, and 56% in 1960; 15% were college graduates in 1950 and 13.5% in 1960.
All of our neighborhoods fronted Lake Michigan. From 43rd St. to 56th St .one swam by jumping off the huge concrete breakers, and then came the beaches: 56th St., 63rd St., 67th St., the beach at the South Shore Country Club, and then Rainbow Beach. Was there segregation here? Here is what I remember, and I am willing to be contradicted: from 43rd to 55th Black kids jumped off the concrete, then came the point, desecrated during our high school years by a missile site, where Jewish/White Christians also jumped off concrete blocks, then the integrated 56 street beach, then the mostly Black but also integrated 63rd and 67th St. beaches, then the restricted country club, then the Rainbow Beach used by White Christian and Jewish kids but after our years the site of racial riots.
But there may be a racial subtext here. When I look at the 1951 picture of Chicago at the beginning of this chapter, I see that from 56th street to far north along the Outer Drive there is no easy way to get to the lake. Was there a walkway at 47th street or at 35th street in the 1950’s? Was there an attempt by Chicago to keep folks in Bronzeville from accessing the lakefront? At any rate, when Blacks moved into Kenwood, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn, they now had easy access to the lakefront.
All of our neighborhoods were within walking distance of Jackson Park and many of us spent hours in the Museum of Science and Industry where the entrance fee was still reasonable. Hyde Park High played baseball games in Jackson Park across from the school. When we were young there were bridal paths for horses and when we started high school, the Park District eliminated all of the bushes, leaving yawning open spaces. Nevertheless, the park, with the beautiful sunken garden and the Japanese house, was a refuge for many of us, an almost sacred place to escape the urban culture of Chicago.
Before the autumn of 1955 when I started driving, I walked in almost every neighborhood serviced by Hyde Park High, the only exception being that I never went north of 47th St., but at 47th was a very good record store for Blues music—“Mr. T’s”. I never felt any fear walking though these diverse neighborhoods except near 47th St. where a White/Christian gang called the Mumcheks terrorized all of us. I mostly went to the Harper, Hyde Park, and Picadilly movie theaters, but after 1955 also to the Jeffery. This statement might not be true for Black kids. One of our classmates told me that when his family moved into Hyde Park in the 1950’s, his family received death threats and the apartment had to be protected by the police. His mother organized other Black mothers to form a social club for their children they called “the gang” to keep them from hostile Whites. When by mistake they rode their bicycles into White neighborhoods, they were chased out. I would like to receive comments about how easy it was for Black kids to walk the streets.
Population statistics show that between 1952 and 1956 many Asian, White Christian and Jewish families had already moved to the suburbs. For the Blacks and others who remained, we all lived our lives in full view of our neighbors in crowded vibrant and diverse urban neighborhoods, walked and took public transportation, avoided street danger, felt a bit of fear going through the tunnel at Harper Avenue or the one going to the Point, knew about street hustlers and the homeless and dirty old men, and had easy access to stores, museums, libraries, Jackson Park., and lakefront beaches. No other high school district in Chicago could boast of this diversity and opportunity.
Comments:
Lesley Dahlin Shapiro: “As kids we wandered around safely. The park, the museum, the U of C, the beaches were all places we took for granted. I have worked in places where the children never saw a college campus, a beach, a museum, etc.
Bob Baker: “This statement might not be true for Black kids. One of our classmates told me that when his family moved into Hyde Park in the 1950’s, his family received death threats and the apartment had to be protected by the police. His mother organized other Black mothers to form a social club for their children they called “the gang” to keep them from hostile Whites. When by mistake they rode their bicycles into White neighborhoods, they were
Roberta Rosenstein Siegel: “I loved the MSI. My grandmother took me there when I was younger than five to be sure I would not suck my thumb in Kindergarten. She showed me the mal-formations that can happen…..Also remember the exhibition about the growth of a fetus, from embryo to full term!”
Dorothy Anderson Faller: “Yes, I loved the big city—working at Marshall Fields, going to the Art Institute and the other downtown museums. The MSI was our “go to” place; the activities at the University of Chicago were so stimulating….We ice skated and set off family fireworks on the Midway. Jackson Park was also a wonderful place to walk.”
Robert Howard: “I was fortunate to live very close to Washington Park as a pre-teen, live in South Kenwood as a teen, live near Lake Michigan’s 63rd St. beach and travel all over the city with the A Cappella choir and basketball team…I also had the chance to work p.t. at the MSI and that experience definitely had a profound impact on my life. Visiting the museum almost every weekday and roaming the exhibits after work provide a non-threatening learning environment for me.”
Bob Baker: This is a picture of Vista Homes, where I grew up, across the street from the museum of S&I, and I can’t imagine that I ever lived in such a place!
As kids we wandered around safely. The park, the museum, the U of C, the beaches were all places we took for granted. I have worked in places where the children never saw a college campus, a beach, a museum, etc.