A look at the Chicago crucible that helped form Barack Obama
Obama’s Chicago
Obama’s Chicago
“The south side is typically known as the ‘Black Belt’ or ‘Bronzeville,’” Billups said. “Most of the people who moved to Chicago from the South, Mississippi
and Alabama, along the Illinois Central railroad line would get off that train and were already on the near south side of Chicago on 9th and Polk where Blacks
could live. These were areas where there were open markets and warehouses. So the south side became the area —and of course in those days when it was
highly segregated — where everyone lived together, the doctors, lawyers, teachers, the candlestick makers, the liquor storeowners, the people who made policies
and the winos. These Black neighborhoods were all over the south side from the lake all the way to almost the western edge of the city at that time.”
With the advent of the open housing laws in the 1960s, middle and upper income African Americans began to move out of the areas they had formerly
been segregated into. “Living in these neighborhoods — if you were working class or middle class — you constantly moved south,” Billups said. “The further south
you go in the city, the less dense it is and you have more single family homes as opposed to apartment buildings. Even though that mix continues throughout
the city, it gets more middle class as you get more south and southwest. So going back and forth between neighborhoods as families grew and split apart, a lot of
the areas were very poor. A lot of the areas were poor mixed in with okay and okay mixed in with a little better. These are the neighborhoods that Black people
grew up in on the south side of Chicago.”
When speaking about gang influences on the south side, Billups noted that Chicago has always had its gangs including those that had been run by Al
Capone during Prohibition and the 1920s. “There are a lot of those sorts of associational groups like gangs, social clubs and men’s clubs that forged the culture
on the south side,” Billups said. “So you had to play it right. If you were in the wrong neighborhood or the wrong part of your own neighborhood, you might be
challenged. You had to be able to respond to that challenge in order to just survive on the streets. When I say the streets, I mean going back and forth from
school, going to the grocery store or hanging out trying to play some basketball or anything that would put you outside of your home. You had to be careful and
aware and know how to handle yourself.”
On the eastern edge of the south side were Hyde Park and the University of Chicago. “Hyde Park is made up of the same sorts of neighborhoods that would
surround universities,” Billups said. “After the 1950s, they actually planned to integrate Hyde Park so it became — because of the university influence — a liberal
part of the city as well and probably more progressive, at least when I was growing up. You could always depend on Hyde Park to vote for all of the issues that
would have some positive impact on Black people. And in Hyde Park when I was growing up in the late 1950s through the 1980s, you were always welcome.”
and Alabama, along the Illinois Central railroad line would get off that train and were already on the near south side of Chicago on 9th and Polk where Blacks
could live. These were areas where there were open markets and warehouses. So the south side became the area —and of course in those days when it was
highly segregated — where everyone lived together, the doctors, lawyers, teachers, the candlestick makers, the liquor storeowners, the people who made policies
and the winos. These Black neighborhoods were all over the south side from the lake all the way to almost the western edge of the city at that time.”
With the advent of the open housing laws in the 1960s, middle and upper income African Americans began to move out of the areas they had formerly
been segregated into. “Living in these neighborhoods — if you were working class or middle class — you constantly moved south,” Billups said. “The further south
you go in the city, the less dense it is and you have more single family homes as opposed to apartment buildings. Even though that mix continues throughout
the city, it gets more middle class as you get more south and southwest. So going back and forth between neighborhoods as families grew and split apart, a lot of
the areas were very poor. A lot of the areas were poor mixed in with okay and okay mixed in with a little better. These are the neighborhoods that Black people
grew up in on the south side of Chicago.”
When speaking about gang influences on the south side, Billups noted that Chicago has always had its gangs including those that had been run by Al
Capone during Prohibition and the 1920s. “There are a lot of those sorts of associational groups like gangs, social clubs and men’s clubs that forged the culture
on the south side,” Billups said. “So you had to play it right. If you were in the wrong neighborhood or the wrong part of your own neighborhood, you might be
challenged. You had to be able to respond to that challenge in order to just survive on the streets. When I say the streets, I mean going back and forth from
school, going to the grocery store or hanging out trying to play some basketball or anything that would put you outside of your home. You had to be careful and
aware and know how to handle yourself.”
On the eastern edge of the south side were Hyde Park and the University of Chicago. “Hyde Park is made up of the same sorts of neighborhoods that would
surround universities,” Billups said. “After the 1950s, they actually planned to integrate Hyde Park so it became — because of the university influence — a liberal
part of the city as well and probably more progressive, at least when I was growing up. You could always depend on Hyde Park to vote for all of the issues that
would have some positive impact on Black people. And in Hyde Park when I was growing up in the late 1950s through the 1980s, you were always welcome.”
| LaMarr Billups with a life-size photo of President Barack Obama at an inaugural party for Obama supporters in Falls Church, Virginia |
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 3
While much has been said about the influence President Barack Obama’s childhood spent in Hawaii and
Indonesia, the love and attention that he received from his mother and grandparents, the absence of his Kenyan
father and his Columbia University and Harvard Law School education. While these are certainly important
factors in his life, it was Chicago — and particularly the south side of Chicago — that molded Obama’s
professional and political careers.
In this three-part series, The Capital City Hues is going to take a look at some of the history and features of
Chicago’s south side — an eclectic place from Hyde Park and the University of Chicago to gang-dominated
neighborhoods and everything in between. LaMarr Billups, now an assistant vice-president at Georgetown
University and Hanah Jon Taylor, jazz musician and instructor at Madison Media Institute, were born and grew
up on Chicago’s south side and have witnessed and experienced many of the same qualities that have molded
Barack Obama. Through their eyes, we shall explore Obama’s Chicago.
****
LaMarr Billups chuckles as he starts to talk about Barack Obama and Chicago’s south side. While Billups
had long since left Chicago to work in Wisconsin before Obama moved to Chicago in 1985, he jokingly referred
to Obama as a newcomer. And to really understand the south side, you have to go back in history a ways.
Part 1 of 3
While much has been said about the influence President Barack Obama’s childhood spent in Hawaii and
Indonesia, the love and attention that he received from his mother and grandparents, the absence of his Kenyan
father and his Columbia University and Harvard Law School education. While these are certainly important
factors in his life, it was Chicago — and particularly the south side of Chicago — that molded Obama’s
professional and political careers.
In this three-part series, The Capital City Hues is going to take a look at some of the history and features of
Chicago’s south side — an eclectic place from Hyde Park and the University of Chicago to gang-dominated
neighborhoods and everything in between. LaMarr Billups, now an assistant vice-president at Georgetown
University and Hanah Jon Taylor, jazz musician and instructor at Madison Media Institute, were born and grew
up on Chicago’s south side and have witnessed and experienced many of the same qualities that have molded
Barack Obama. Through their eyes, we shall explore Obama’s Chicago.
****
LaMarr Billups chuckles as he starts to talk about Barack Obama and Chicago’s south side. While Billups
had long since left Chicago to work in Wisconsin before Obama moved to Chicago in 1985, he jokingly referred
to Obama as a newcomer. And to really understand the south side, you have to go back in history a ways.