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HighBeam Research
Title: Middle-class community reflects black attainment of the American dream Series:MAKING IT: The story of Chatham
Date:
April 28, 1986
Publication:
Chicago Sun-Times
Author:
WilliamBraden((PHOTO CAPTION CONTINUED)) Before Arthur Turnbull, 80, moved into hishouse in Chatham in 1955, he asked the owner how the white people in thearea felt about black people. "There's hardly a day we're not out picking uppaper" to keep the streets nearly spotless, says Clem-entine Skinner, 70,retired assistant principal of South Shore High School. LEFT: Writers andresearchers too often concentrate on poor blacks, says William Sampson,Northwestern University sociologist. RIGHT: The average household incomein Chatham is $30,000 - quite middle class - estimates William Garth,publisher of the Chatham-Southeast Citizen. Chatham has its share of well-known residents, including state Comptroller Roland W. Burris and his wife,Burlean. The distinguished, tree-lined 8100 block of South Eberhart reflectsthe middle-class values of its residents. U.S. District Judge George N.Leighton dons his robe before entering the courtroom. ((CAPTION ENDS)) Three decades ago, upwardly mobile blacks broke out of the ghetto to settlein the South Side community of Chatham.Chatham became a focal point for the emergence of a black middle classthat now represents perhaps half of Chicago's black population.Chathamites believe in hard work, discipline and family life. They have highhopes for their children's future, and their emphasis on education has beendescribed as "almost ruthless." They have created a vibrant community of excellence that is also now acommunity in transition.How did Chatham succeed, and how is it changing? This is the first of four articles on the people, the values and the future of Chatham. The old man, a senior federal judge, sat in the night in hischambers in the Dirksen Federal Building, high above the roar of downtownChicago.
 
He looked out at the twinkling lights of the South Side, where he lives in aremarkable community called Chatham.He looked down at the traffic below and recalled a time when members of hisrace were not allowed to drive a taxi in the Loop."Things are better now," said U.S. District Judge George N. Leighton. And formany blacks in Chicago, nowhere is it better than in Chatham.Chatham is a bastion of Chicago's black middle class. It represents perhapsthe largest concentration of middle-class blacks in America outside of Harlemand Atlanta, and it calls itself "a community of excellence." Its residents puta premium on hard work, discipline, education, family life and keeping uptheir property. But the winds of change are blowing, and Chatham is alsonow a community in transition. There are comparable black communities in Chicago, including Pill Hill, WestChesterfield and Jackson Park Highlands. But they are relatively small incomparison.Chatham is populated by some 23,000 people who live in an area most localsagree is bounded by 75th and 87th Streets, the Dan Ryan Expy. and CottageGrove Avenue. And its residents epitomize the culture and values of themiddle class that constitutes probably half of Chicago's black population. You never hear about these people, said Northwestern University sociologistWilliam A. Sampson."Everybody writes about the elite and the underclass," he said. "Nobodywrites about the 50 percent in the middle."Sampson estimates that about a third of blacks in Chicago and the nation arepoor, and about a third of those poor are underclass. About 20 percent areupper class. And the rest are middle class. But the press and academicianshave focused their attention on the bottom third."Therefore," Sampson said, "much of what we think we know about blacks inAmerica is erroneous, because it's based upon the studies, essentially, of poor blacks."According to Governors State University political scientist Paul MichaelGreen, "The Bill Cosby syndrome is alive and well in Chatham. The Americandream is being lived out there."Sampson, an authority on the black middle class, has been studyingChatham for years. "Chatham is an anchor," he said. "The people in Chatham
 
serve as role models for everybody else on the South Side. They are goingabout their lives in a decent, respectable way, every day. Mothers andfathers who are trying to get their kids to live the same kinds of lives in thesurrounding neighborhoods can point to these people and say, `You can doit. Look at that guy walking down the street. He's doing it. It can be done.'"There's a breakdown in social control in the underclass because there arenot Chathams all over Chicago. There aren't older folks who are saying toyoung kids, `Boy, if you do that, I'm going to break your head.' `Girl, if youlet that happen to you, don't you ever come back here.' These people areabsolutely crucial."Chatham today is virtually 100 percent black. Its residents include civilservants, schoolteachers, city workers, business people, politicians and agrowing number of young black urban professionals.Some three decades ago, Chatham was 100 percent white. Groundwork forthe change was laid in 1948, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck downrestrictive covenants. There always had been a black middle class, said William J. Grimshaw, anIllinois Institute of Technology political scientist. But its members had lived inthe city's Black Belt cheek to jowl with the poor, and they became visibleonly when the court ruling allowed them to break out of the ghetto.With savings accumulated during the war years, they began to move southinto Chatham around 1955. The migration accelerated with demolition forthe University of Illinois at Chicago and the Dan Ryan.Chatham at that time was an attractive community occupied by middle-classand working-class ethnics, mainly Irish and Scandinavians. The whitesresisted the incursion. But ultimately they fled, whipped into panic byblockbusters who warned that property values were sure to plummet.Some of the whites who decamped come back now to visit, and findChatham an upgraded community with greatly increased property values.It's a standard joke in Chatham that a motorist driving through would thinkhe was in an upscale white neighbor hood if the residents would hide in theirhomes."When friends from work come out here, they're just absolutely shocked,"said Lee Nunery, 30, an assistant vice president at the First National Bank of Chicago. They say, `Gee, you have grass and trees and squirrels. This is kindof like Wilmette, isn't it? It's kind of like Evanston, isn't it?' They say, `Jeez,the house is nice.' I say, `What did you expect, jungle vines?'
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