1960 Areas of Negro Residence [Chicago, Illinois]

Mapping Chicago’s segregation in the early 1960s.

“Residential segregation in Chicago is reinforced by rigidly enforced institutional practices. These practices include: (1) Real estate brokers who refuse to show property or sell to Negroes; (2) professional real estate organizations which refuse membership to Negro brokers and which punish white members who attempt sales or rental activities for Negroes in white areas and (3) banks and lending institutions which refuse to make mortgages available to Negroes in areas outside the Negro ghetto.” – Report.

The excerpt above was extracted from a 1963 report by the Research Department of Chicago’s Urban League. Using data from the 1960 Census, the organization paints a bleak picture of Chicago’s segregated housing and the ‘white flight’ of a prior decade. Tables of statistics reinforce the narrative, with a shocking 43% of non-white renter-occupied units lacking basic facilities.

A large map accompanies the report, dividing the city into its 75 Community Areas, which are then split further into individual census tracts. Large concentrations of predominantly African-American populations (90%+) are evident in a broad band around the Loop and in several pockets on the far South Side. Integrated communities (10 – 49.9% African-American) are sparse, clustered around mixed-use commercial districts and the South Side between 71st and 95th.