Dec 21, 1959, in a referendum, Deerfield residents voted
overwhelmingly to prevent an integrated housing development in Deerfield from
being completed, this followed The Deerfield, Illinois city council voting to
stop integration of their white community saying they needed more parks. The
suburb of Chicago is the province of affluent families led by businessmen who were
reportedly more worried about property values because of who their neighbors
were.
The group ‘Modern Community Developers’ led by Morris Milgram
was a New Jersey development group with deep pockets but also powerful
connections as they had former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt backing the development.
They had also created similar developments in Philadelphia, PA, and Princeton,
NJ that had not received as much attention and negative publicity.
After hearing the announcement of the intent to build with a 20
percent occupancy by Negro families Deerfield residents immediately took sides
with the larger group called ‘Organized Resistance’ declaring that they had no
racial bias but were very concerned about the effect of the development on the
affluent suburb’s property values, which according to reports were consistently
rising. The community of 10,000 did have a higher than normal, for the Chicago
area, turnover as the businessmen climbed the executive ladder and moved to
other locations.
Village manager Norris Stiphen stated at the time that while
there was no issue with where Negros lived, he and the town board felt that
there was subterfuge in the initial planning because this percentage of
allocated housing was never mentioned and that they were concerned about ‘panic
selling’ if housing values did begin to drop. A second group had also come
forward in support of development prior to the Dec. 21st referendum. The group
calling themselves, ‘Deerfield Residents for Human Rights’ advocated for the
project but was by far in the minority as in the weeks leading to the
referendum and subsequent park zoning designation there was a cross burning on
the site.
After both the referendum vote and rezoning Milgram and his
partners sued the village and eventually, that case was rejected by the Supreme
Court leaving in place an appellate court ruling allowing the village to mandate
the park
Today Deerfield remains a 94 percent White community with
issues regarding “Affordable Housing”
Photos by: Art Shay, © Art Shay Archive
Sources:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/45405699/?terms=Deerfield&match=1
https://www.nprillinois.org/equity-justice/2018-11-15/why-is-deerfield-still-so-white
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/deerfield-district-agrees-to-rename-park-tied-to-decades-old-housing-inequality/2292418/
https://www.npr.org/local/309/2019/04/12/712880913/deerfield-residents-gather-to-resolve-a-history-of-resisting-integration
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