Due to the discriminatory conditions in the South, millions of blacks migrated to the North during the Great Migration, seeking a better living. Although the North promised them employment, it was only able to provide them with limited shelter. Therefore, after arriving to Chicago, the majority of black migrants were forced to live in the Chicago Black Belt. As the black migrants moved into Washington Park, an area near the Chicago Black Belt, Irish Catholics, Germans, Swedes, and Jews followed the white Protestants to South Shore.
 Living conditions of blacks in the Chicago Black Belt University of Chicago Joseph Regenstein Library: Mildred Mead Collection
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"In our homes, in our churches,
wherever two or three are gathered, there is a discussion of what is best to do. Must we remain in the South or go elsewhere? Where can we go to feel the security which other people feel? Is it best to go in great numbers or only in several families? These and many other things are discussed over and over." - A Colored Woman in Alabama, 1902 (The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson) |
 Living conditions of blacks in the Chicago Black Belt University of Chicago Joseph Regenstein Library: Mildred Mead Collection
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Chicago Defender; August 7, 1943
Making the Second Ghetto by Arnold R. Hirsch
Chicago Defender; August 31, 1946
Chicago Defender; August 31. 1946