From our archives: ‘Drive to end slums’

The American civil-rights movement has thrust northward into the big cities. It has produced challenging confrontations over the past year. To give a clearer understanding of what those challenges can mean to a city, The Christian Science Monitor asked for two ‘inside’ assessments from Chicago. The following, by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., is the first.

Midsummer of 1966 saw Northern racism spread through the streets of Chicago as thousands of Negro and white marchers began their demonstrations for open housing.

Swastikas bloomed in Chicago parks like misbegotten weeds. Our marchers were met by a hailstorm of bricks, bottles, and firecrackers. “White power” became the racist hatecall, punctuated by obscenities – most frequently directed at Roman Catholic priests and nuns among the marchers,

The episode spread over a two-month period, was the most visible and most memorable in the new Northern thrust of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Our first attack on urban segregation shamed and shocked the nation by exposing a hated and brutality identified only with officialdom in Selma and Birmingham in earlier years.

Drives in those Southern cities resulted in major national legislation. The Chicago marches

Representative group formedUnions formedApartments rehabilitatedPatronage withdrawn556 Negroes hiredLittle change seenAction accelerated