Woodlawn, Chicago
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Woodlawn is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, USA bounded by Jackson Park to the East, the University of Chicago to the North, Martin Luther King Drive to the West, and, mostly, 67th to the South.
| Community Area 42 - Woodlawn Missing image US-IL-Chicago-CA42.GIF Chicago Community Area 42 - Woodlawn Location within the city of Chicago | ||
| Latitude Longitude | Template:Coor dm | |
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| ZIP Code | parts of 60637 | |
| Area | 5.36 km² (2.07 mi²) | |
| Population (2000) Density | 27,086 (down 1.41% from 1990) 5,052.2 /km² | |
| Demographics | White Black Hispanic Asian Other | 2.81% 94.2% 1.06% 0.76% 1.15% |
| Median income | $18,266 | |
| Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services | ||
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Demographics
In the 1990 census, Woodlawn had twenty seven thousand individuals, living in ten thousand households. Over 98% of the population was African American, over half were on some form of public aid, and the median household income was over $13,000.
History
Racial transition
Up until the 1950s, Woodlawn was a middle class white neighborhood, which grew out of the floods of workers and commerce from the 1893 Columbian Exposition. During the first half of the century, many University of Chicago professors lived in Woodlawn. With the Supreme Court ruling outlawing racially restrictive covenants in 1947, the combination of the expanding African American urban population, their limited housing options, and exploitive real estate maneuvers that divvied up apartments into kitchenettes, Woodlawn began to have its first African American residents.
Like other communities bordering the ghetto, Woodlawn experienced intense bouts of white flight when the first African Americans moved into the neighborhood. Many institutions and people moved to the suburbs, a process that was facilitated by new federal housing loans. Realtors routinely subdivided the vacated large apartments and hence often made off well with the combination of white outflight and the high demand African Americans had for housing. From this, buildings were over-filled with families and often the absentee landlords did little to maintain the buildings.
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Community organization
By the early 1960's Woodlawn was a predominantly African American neighborhood with a population of nearly 90,000 people. 63rd street was one of the busiest streets on the South Side and was famous for its jazz clubs. Despite its bustle, Woodlawn was an economically deteriorating community and attempts to revive its citizenry were short-lived and fractured. In Hyde Park to the north, a similar process occurred in the 1950's but with radically different results. The University of Chicago, a large land owner with vested interest in the character of the neighborhood, through many avenues fought against what it saw as the encrouchment of blight.
The University
As Arnold Hirsch argues in his chapter "Neighborhood on a hill" in Making the Second Ghetto, the University, through the SECC and at times with brute force, made Hyde Park the site of one of the first urban Renewal projects in the country. In an attempt to maintain a number of white families, the University tore down "slum" areas, often employing eminent domain powers. In the process, many African Americans were displaced from Hyde Park and cultural centers like 55th street were leveled.
After their successes in Hyde Park, the University moved quickly to begin a second urban renewal project in Woodlawn. A one mile wide area from 60th to 61st in Woodlawn was scheduled for renewal and the university's planned South Campus. The plans were drawn and there was a press conference.
TWO
The Temporary Woodlawn Organization coalesced around the threat of the University bulldozing the whole neighborhood, and has its roots in the pastors's Alliance of Woodlawn. Several years earlier, the Alliance had called in Saul Alinsky, founder of the Industrial Areas Foundation, to discuss plans to organize the community. But several major members of the Alliance at that time were displeased with Alinsky's brashness and controversial direct tactics. After the University's plans were known, several prominent churches gave the seed money for the organization which began in 1961.
The TWO, like other IAF organizations, was a coalition of existing community entities such as churches, business and civic associations. These member groups paid dues, and the organization was run by an elected board. The TWO moved quickly to establish itself as the "voice" of Woodlawn, mobilizing existing leadership and bringing up new leadership. A prime example of the newly empowered leadership in the TWO was Reverend Arthur M. Brazier, who was the first spokesperson and eventual president. Starting out as a mail carrier, a preacher in a store front church, and then through the TWO bolstered into a national spokesman for the black power movement, Brazier has since become a very powerful pastor in Chicago. In the initial years, when TWO was still under the IAF umbrella, Nicholas Van Hoffman, Alinsky's second in command, planned most of the actions.
As Fish argues in Black Power/White Control the TWO picked issues that mobilized resident participation, and at the same time built power for the organization to take on large outside entities like the University and the City (i.e. Mayor Daley). The group took part in the flurry of activity surrounding the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights Movement by loading up over 40 buses of people from Woodlawn and riding to City Hall to register to vote. They also rallied against slum landlords and cheating business owners. The TWO also took action on the University and were able to gain a seat on the City planning board (which stopped the University's plans).
TWO faced continually worsening conditions in the neighborhood, and there are many arguments about its efficacy.
For more specific analysis on the TWO see:
- CDC account (http://www.picced.org/lowres/two.htm) from perspective of TWO itself
- critical paper (http://comm-org.utoledo.edu/papers96/alinsky/woodlawn.html) on Woodlawn organizing and literature on it
Gangs
In the late 1950s early 1960s, Jeff Fort, (aka Chief Malik, Angel) and Eugene Hairston (aka Chief Bull) ran a small clique around 63rd and Blackstone in Woodlawn called the Blackstone Rangers. By the middle of the 60s, Jeff Fort and Chief Bull had pulled together 21 street organizations, and the Blackstone Rangers, now known as the Black P Stone Nation had a strong political identity, while also, of course, involved in criminal activities. After Eugene Hairston was locked up an released in the late 60s, Jeff Fort took sole leadership of the street organization of 50,000 members. In the 70s the Stones got more political and in involved in community power. It even received funding from the Federal Government to run a job training program in Woodlawn. Predictably, it was not long before the government came down on the Stones for malfeasance, and Jeff Fort went to prison until '76. While in jail, Jeff Fort was influenced by the Nation of Islam and upon his release renamed the Rangers the Moorish Temple of America, and eventually the El Rukns.
Present day Woodlawn
Woodlawn has made great strides into stabilizing as a neighborhood and community. The demolition of much of the eastern branch of the Green Line helped reduce crime and has helped make a remarkable difference in East Woodlawn. There are many new hopeful developments and infill projects as greater education and more stable income slowly drips back into the area. While West Woodlawn and the Green Line tracks still has problems with crime and with a reduced recovery, Woodlawn, on the whole, seems to be slowly improving. The University of Chicago has a "stance" on the neighboring communities to help inform students of stable and safe areas. In recent years, the University's stance on Woodlawn has changed in that it is now a generally stable and safe area, which seems to match a general trend of the improvement of the South Side of Chicago. Yet, at the same time, some at the University argue that the best policy towards Woodlawn should be one of showing no economic quarter who oppose the Universities' expansion. Subsequently, there exists a level of tension between in some of the residents of Woodlawn against the University.