I was just turned 9, ready to start the fourth grade, when our family, and all the others on the block, learned overnight of an incident building nearby of unprecedented impact. We heard shouting, trampling footsteps, loud noise throughout the night, saw hundreds of people tramping by out front, mostly heading south. By morning, the radio broadcast news of the top story of the day: "CICERO RACE RIOT: MOB OF 4,000 DESTROYS APARTMENT BUILDING WITH ONE BLACK FAMILY TENANTS" I of course had no idea about prejudice, exactly, but knew black folks were most definitely looked-down upon by everyone I knew, in our town of Berwyn, next suburb west of Cicero, the old home town of Al Capone. There was trash everywhere, everyone's front lawn was trampled.......no houses were in any way touched, except the big apartment building a block away. It stood at the east "foot" of 19th. Street on Lombard Ave, the dividing line between the two towns, and ran separated by a wide grassy median through Berwyn. Little could we have known that soon, that median would be occupied by hundreds of Illinois National Guardsmen, cordoned off by a perimeter extending a block in all directions from the apartment building. Here during the settling down period, is an image of the boarded-up building: Before arrival of the troops, there were large mobs of people gathered everywhere, some wreaking damage on the building, most simply displaying their hatred of the thought of a black family living in all-white Cicero. Looking eastward on 19th. St., the building in the background: The Governor called out the Guard. Here they are gathered on 19th. St., one block south of our house. Barbed wire fence was set up preventing foot traffic, and since my Mother went to shop groceries fresh every day or two, she had to prove we lived within the perimeter, where guards were posted on our streetcorner, one block north. When my Dad came driving home from work, he had to prove he lived in the second house from the corner! Attempts had been made to burn the building! We saw early-on, license plates from many adjoining states, most unusual in our quiet little neighborhood. We had heard an unruly hooligan was bayonetted in the chest when he attempted to force his way past the guardsmen: I had two pet rabbits in a hutch in our backyard, only 2 doors south of 18th. St. They escaped during the mayhem, unknown to us, and early one morning a young Guardsman came knocking on our back door, after my Dad had left for work. My Mother, frightened at first, opened the door to find a second uniformed guy behind the first; each carried a rabbit! The first very politely explained to my Mother, "Ma'am, we saw you had rabbits out here, and they got loose last night. We caught them out on "Main Street!" Most amazing! There is a link to an account of the incident below. It was widely believed the heads of government as well as law enforcement, prejudiced themselves in every way, instructed officers to "look the other way" and not interfere in the rioting. https://blackthen.com/cicero-race-r...tment-building-with-one-black-family-tenants/
@Ken Anderson Ours came about totally unexpectedly, grew to proportions beyond local control, brought paid hooligans in to wreck the premises, and for the most part, the local folks condoned it! In reality, such hatred makes little sense, I know now. I've spent a lifetime trying to sort these kind of things out in my mind, still not convinced. Chicago back then had a large black population, still has, today, 60+ years later, my high school buddy Charlie, born and raised in Cicero, still lives there, tells us conditions are no different now. Just more tolerant, to some degree, the various ethnic groups still have niche neighborhoods of their own, where intrusion by other persuasions is highly frowned upon. While I still lived there, 1970, the Chicago neighborhoods were clearly delineated: South Side, Black, near south side Polish, West Side blend of Czech and Polish, Taylor Street entirely Italian, Pilsen Park Czech (note "pilsener beer" origins.), Mid-central area, Lake Street and Central, Puerto Rican, reputed to be the nastiest of all, carrying not switchblades, but straight-edged razors. In between the South Side and Cermak Rd. boundary lay the Lithuanian sector. Each place had it's ethnic businesses, restaurants, entertainment areas and stores of all kinds, many frequented by "outsiders" who spent their money there, but were UNWELCOME come dawn. Such was "prejudice" in Chicago around 1970.
@Thomas Stearn If I understand correctly, your reference to clipping came from: https://images.search.yahoo.com/sea...zZWMDc2M-?p=cicero+race+riots+1951&fr=yfp-t-s
I guess people feel a need to fear or to separate themselves from someone. We didn't have any ethnicities so we separated ourselves from Catholics. I don't remember it being an issue in my immediate family but I can recall an aunt being concerned because I had a friend over one weekend who was Catholic. She was talking to my mother and what I heard was, "He's Catholic, you know." That was embarrassing because, if I heard it, I'm sure my friend heard it too, and he was one of the few friends I had in elementary school who wasn't a cousin. Another aunt, probably the same one, but a few years had elapsed between one incident and the other, was concerned because I was dating a Catholic in high school. In one sense, I can understand the comfort that might come in living around people who you feel you understand, and can know what to expect from, if that's even true, and I guess I can understand the discomfort of being surrounded by people who are different. But I've never felt that way myself. Although I grew up in an area that was mostly white and now live in an area that is mostly white, for most of my life that wasn't the case at all. I was one of only a few people who didn't have Mexican heritage in the Rio Grande Valley and, while it took awhile to get used to the language difference, that didn't bother me. While living in the Edcouch-Elsa area, I was referred to as "the white guy." As long as they don't hate me, I'll save my hate for people who have actually done something worthy of it.
I was married in Chicago in 1970 and didn’t witness anything like this. I lived on the far north side. And as for being Catholic...I never even heard of anything negative about Catholics until this forum. It was such a surprise to me. I knew it was an issue in Ireland... between Catholics and Protestants but not here.
It went both ways. Catholics weren't supposed to hang around with Protestants either. I don't think it was a hatred, really. No one was burning down houses or throwing stones or anything. I think it was a result of the idea that, to Catholics, Protestants were going to hell and, to Protestants, Catholics were going to hell. I'm sure there are people who still feel that way but I don't think very many people do anymore. Today, I think that if Catholics are going to hell, it's because they tend to vote Democrat.
I never knew any Catholics that hated Protestants either....religion was a non issue. I never knew what religion anyone was except for the Catholics that went to a catholic school or church or CCD classes once a week.
My maternal grandmother was Protestant but the only one in the family. Of course not everyone stayed catholic or religious. My son and his family aren’t catholic. My daughter and family are but SIL parents aren’t...it’s a mixed bag with even some atheists thrown in now.
OK, what about us non-believers? All the neighbors around us as I grew up were Catholic, attending church regularly, as well as Catholic schools. My Dad's father fled Europe because he hated the Catholic influences. He was, I suppose, an agnostic. I asked my folks, knowing my Mother was raised Catholic, about all the neighbor kids attending Sunday School: she and my Dad told me to go ahead with one of the kids and see if I liked it. I never went. As I matured I began to see how the major religions had shaped the minds of their believers, warped their ability to think for themselves, reasoning out cause and effect. I actually knew folks who unrelentingly believed every single event occurring in their lives or others' was attributable to God. At that juncture, I rebelled, and dropped out. Jeez, think about it: full bladder, God says I must go piss..........demands it. I obey. Frank
There were riots in our city for a few days in the summer of 1968. I remember because I was working as a waitress on the 6 pm - 2 am shift at the time, and there was a curfew, so I was told to stay home one day. I don't think there was much damage. And I don't remember anyone, even in our extended family, ever talking about religion, one way or the other.
Yes, I have a vague memory of riots when I was in HS in Pittsburgh around 1968. We had quite a few black students in our HS but I don’t remember any rioting. It didn’t last long and I don’t remember anyone getting violent....kind of a walkout from school if I recall.
My first exposure to racial unrest was when I started work at Arnaud’s in New Orleans. The French Quarter restaurants had some unwritten rules and one of them was that “colored” people worked in the back house and white people worked the front of the house. Note: bartenders were the exception because they were older black guys. I was a white kid pretending to be 13 years old who started work as an assistant dishwasher; a back house job for colored guys. The executive chef hired me because he liked me so I thought all was well until one of the cooks decided that my arm was a good place to test one of his knives and a couple of the cooks at anther point in a short period of time used hot spatulas in order to persuade me to leave. The Chef pretty much took me under his wing and I stayed long enough to rise up in the ranks (before and after military service) and eventually hired the first black waiters in the long history of Arnaud’s. Today, there isn’t a restaurant in the French Quarter that doesn’t have a mixture of races in the kitchens and the front of the house. My next heavy exposure to racial unrest was when I was with the 82nd Airborne and the Detroit riots broke out......