Chicago's path to segregation

George Kocan's" strange celebration of Dr. King's "dream " (Feb. 4) rekindled the memories of this senior citizen. I also recall the area around St. Phillip's as one of magnificent homes on the boulevard but now boarded up ones as ghostly figures in a sea of ruble. Fallout from the post-World War II era would make Dr. King's "dream" of integration somewhat illusive.

St. Philip's was also a post-Chicago Fire area of no-frills housing and cold water flats, while the nearby Lawndale area offered better housing that gradually lured many there as they moved farther west. Hyman Rickover, father of the atomic submarine, Benny Goodman, Mel Torme, Buddy Hackett and Shecky Greene had also called the area home.

During the World War II years no new housing was going up, creating a severe housing shortage for returning servicemen. Many housing starts spouting up in suburbia like mushrooms began luring veterans and relatives. Industry and businesses needing to expand soon followed while speculating real estate men next set up shop in the Lawndale area steering only African-Americans in the area, an illegal form of discrimination today.

This resulted in the area going from mostly white to all black while at the same time industry and businesses were also leaving the city. The biggest blow came when Sears moved out of the area after the King riots further decayed the area, and the 20,000 jobs that Sears provided were directly or indirectly gone. The loss of income that African-Americans relied on was disappearing, resulting in many foreclosures leading to a decay of the west side spreading block by block.

Caught in this web would be many historic Catholic and Protestant Churches and synagogues early immigrants built. Speculators of that era made money while whites and blacks lost out and Chicago became the most segregated city in America.

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale