lived in the
Ida Wells House, a
Chicago Landmark in the
Bronzeville historic district. With its factories, steel mills and
meat-packing plants, the South Side saw a sustained period of immigration which began around the 1840s and continued through
World War II.
Irish,
Italian,
Polish,
Lithuanian and
Yugoslav immigrants, in particular, settled in neighborhoods adjacent to industrial zones. After the
Civil War freed millions of slaves, during
Reconstruction black southerners migrated to Chicago and caused the black population to nearly quadruple from 4,000 to 15,000 between 1870 and 1890. In the 20th century, the numbers expanded with the
Great Migration, as blacks left the agrarian South seeking a better future in the industrial North, including the South Side. By 1910, the black population in Chicago reached 40,000, with 78% residing in the Black Belt. Extending 30 blocks, mostly between 31st and 55th Streets, along
State Street, but only a few blocks wide, driving further demographic changes. The South Side was
racially segregated for many decades. During the 1920s and 1930s, housing cases on the South Side such as
Hansberry v. Lee, , went to the
U. S. Supreme Court. The case, which reset the limitations of
res judicata, successfully challenged racial restrictions in the
Washington Park Subdivision by reopening them for legal argument. In the early 1960s, during the tenure of then Mayor
Richard J. Daley, the construction of the
Dan Ryan Expressway created controversy. Many perceived the highway's location as an intentional physical barrier between white and black neighborhoods, particularly as the Dan Ryan divided Daley's own neighborhood, the traditionally Irish Bridgeport, from Bronzeville. The economic conditions that led to migration into the South Side were not sustained. Mid-century industrial restructuring in meat packing and the steel industry cost many jobs. Blacks who became educated and achieved middle-class jobs also left after the
Civil Rights Movement to other parts of the city. Street gangs have been prominent in some South Side neighborhoods for over a century, beginning with those of Irish immigrants, who established the first territories in a struggle against other European and black migrants. Some other neighborhoods stayed relatively safe for a big city. By the 1960s, gangs such as the
Vice Lords began to improve their public image, shifting from criminal ventures to operating social programs funded by government and private grants. However, in the 1970s gangs returned to violence and the drug trade. By 2000, traditionally all-male gangs crossed gender lines to include about 20% females.
Housing By the 1930s, the city of Chicago boasted that over 25% of its residential structures were less than 10 years old, many of which were
bungalows. These continued to be built in the working-class South Side into the 1960s.
Studio apartments, with
Murphy beds and
kitchenettes or
Pullman kitchens, comprised a large part of the housing supply during and after the
Great Depression, especially in the "Black Belt". The South Side had a history of
philanthropic subsidized housing dating back to 1919. The
United States Congress passed the
Housing Act of 1949 to fund and improve public housing. CHA produced a plan of citywide projects, which was rejected by the
Chicago City Council's white aldermen who opposed public housing in their wards. This led to a CHA policy of construction of family housing only in black residential areas, concentrated on the South and West Sides. Historian
Arnold R. Hirsch said the CHA was "a bulwark of segregation that helped sustain Chicago's 'second ghetto'".
Gentrification Gentrification of parts of the
Douglas community area has bolstered the
Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District. Gentrification in various parts of the South Side has displaced many black citizens. The South Side offers numerous housing
cooperatives. Hyde Park has several
middle-income co-ops and other South Side regions have limited equity (subsidized, price-controlled) co-ops. These regions experienced
condominium construction and conversion in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the CHA's massive public housing projects, which lined several miles of South State Street, have been demolished. Among the largest were the
Robert Taylor Homes. == Demographics ==