Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Deerfield Illinois Residents Vote To Block Intergration By Blacks

 


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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