Draft:1966 West Side Rent Strike

MLK speech, against Chicago Slums
MLK speech, against Chicago Slums
	<img alt="image icon" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/61/Searchtool.svg/16px-Searchtool.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="512"> Chicago, Civil rights leaders address crowd in soldier field

1966 West Side Rent Strike
1966 West Side Rent Strike
Part of the Civil Rights Movement
Date	January 26, 1966
Location	North Lawndale (West Side), Chicago
Parties
Unions to End Slums; Lawndale Union East Garfield Park Union JOIN Community Union; Students for a Democratic Society Tenant Action Council Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO); American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC);	Chicago City Hall; Chicago Board of Education; Chicago Housing Authority; Chicago Real Estate Board; Chicago Mortgage Bankers Association;
Lead figures
	CCCO member Al Raby AFSC members Kale Williams Bernard Lafayette David Jehnsen Bill Moyer SCLC members Martin Luther King Jr. Bernard Lee James Bevel Jesse Jackson Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools Benjamin Willis

Minor:

^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Major: ^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

Background

On January 26, 1966 Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta King moved into a North Lawndale slum flat at 1550 S. Hamlin Ave, with rent at $90 a month (equivalent to $845 in 2023). The goal was to highlight the slum conditions in Chicago.^[10]

"A West Side apartment will symbolize the slum-lordism that I hope to smash."
— Martin Luther King, ^[10]

The Kings' had a two of SCLC staff pose a couple looking for an apartment in order to secure the place for the Kings' without revealing their identity. After the landlord realized who would be living there they scrambled to send over a crew to fix up the apartment. Both the fridge and the gas stove in the apartment were partially broken, and the apartments' complex hallway smelled of urine.^[10] ^[12]

Location of where the Kings' rented and lived, who choose a slum tenement to highlight the cities inequality, and markers of the rent strikes in the surrounding Chicago area.

Strike

^[13]

By Thomas Crane

Aftermath

Notes

^ Full name:Lawndale Union to End Slums
^ Full name:East Garfield Park Union to End Slums
^ Jobs Or Income Now

References

^ "The Chicago Freedom Movement | National Low Income Housing Coalition". nlihc.org. 2024-10-24. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ Tatman, Heather (2022-01-29). "Fair Housing History Lesson: The Chicago Freedom Movement". Fair Housing Council of Oregon. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ Momodu, Samuel (2016-08-31). "Chicago Freedom Movement (1965–1967) •". Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ "DR. KING OCCUPIES A FLAT IN SLUMS; Will Lead Chicago Campaign Threatens Rent Strikes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ Reporter, The Chicago (2016-02-01). "The roots of the Chicago Freedom Movement". The Chicago Reporter. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
^ "Chapter 28: Chicago Campaign | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute". kinginstitute.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ Hill, Gil Cornfield, Melody Heaps, Norman (2018-01-15). "The Chicago Freedom Movement's quest for economic justice". The Chicago Reporter. Retrieved 2024-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Launching the National Fair Housing Debate: A Closer Look at the 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement (Sara Asrat & Philip Tegeler, December 2005) - PRRAC — Connecting Research to Advocacy". 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ "The housing struggle then and now". SocialistWorker.org. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "The Longest March". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
^ Gellman, Erik S. (June 2017). "The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North". Journal of American History. 104 (1): 270. doi:10.1093/jahist/jax135. ISSN 0021-8723.
^ Sonnie, Amy; Tracy, James (2011). Hillbilly nationalists, urban race rebels, and black power: community organizing in radical times. New York, N.Y: Melville House. ISBN 978-1-935554-66-0.
^ https://www.sds-1960s.org/NLN/NewLeftNotes-vol1-no19.pdf. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

[1] Full name:Lawndale Union to End Slums

[2] Full name:East Garfield Park Union to End Slums

[3] Jobs Or Income Now

[4] "The Chicago Freedom Movement | National Low Income Housing Coalition". nlihc.org. 2024-10-24. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[5] Tatman, Heather (2022-01-29). "Fair Housing History Lesson: The Chicago Freedom Movement". Fair Housing Council of Oregon. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[6] Momodu, Samuel (2016-08-31). "Chicago Freedom Movement (1965–1967) •". Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[7] "DR. KING OCCUPIES A FLAT IN SLUMS; Will Lead Chicago Campaign Threatens Rent Strikes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[8] Reporter, The Chicago (2016-02-01). "The roots of the Chicago Freedom Movement". The Chicago Reporter. Retrieved 2024-10-29.

[9] "Chapter 28: Chicago Campaign | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute". kinginstitute.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[10] Hill, Gil Cornfield, Melody Heaps, Norman (2018-01-15). "The Chicago Freedom Movement's quest for economic justice". The Chicago Reporter. Retrieved 2024-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[11] "Launching the National Fair Housing Debate: A Closer Look at the 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement (Sara Asrat & Philip Tegeler, December 2005) - PRRAC — Connecting Research to Advocacy". 2005-12-01. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[12] "The housing struggle then and now". SocialistWorker.org. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[:0-13] "The Longest March". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2024-10-25.

[14] Gellman, Erik S. (June 2017). "The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North". Journal of American History. 104 (1): 270. doi:10.1093/jahist/jax135. ISSN 0021-8723.

[15] Sonnie, Amy; Tracy, James (2011). Hillbilly nationalists, urban race rebels, and black power: community organizing in radical times. New York, N.Y: Melville House. ISBN 978-1-935554-66-0.

[16] ttps://www.sds-1960s.org/NLN/NewLeftNotes-vol1-no19.pdf. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

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