April is National Fair Housing Month, marking successes and failures in the law of the land mandating fair housing for all.

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It’s been more than 40 years since the Fair Housing Act was passed, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. This was on April 11, 1968.

President Johnson signed the act into law to combat widespread discrimination in the renting and selling of homes—discrimination that had been rampant for decades. Since then, our society has made good progress, but we still have a long way to go. According to the National Fair Housing Alliance, there are at least four million acts of housing discrimination every year. And the collapse of the housing market was fueled by subprime lending practices, a market built primarily on borrowers and neighborhoods of color.

So even though we’ve moved away from the strict residential segregation that marred the 50s and ‘60s, the fact remains that most Americans still live in communities largely divided by race and ethnicity.

In recognition of the work that has yet to be done, and in commemoration of National Fair Housing Month in April, this month’s videos feature two of Chicago’s most engaging storytellers talking about growing up in changing neighborhoods. Both women—one Irish-American, one African-American—remember growing up on the south side in the 1960s. While their experiences were very different, they both observed racial transformations that challenged the powerful notion of “home” for blacks and whites alike. Some of the changes were amusing, but others were charged with hostility and hatred. Both stories deal with issues of segregation, racism and the human desire to simply belong.

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Changing Neighborhoods: High School

Yearbooks and White Flight.

Storyteller Shanta remembers her fascination with school yearbooks.
She was a nine-year-old on the south side of Chicago in the 1960s,
and people were moving out of her neighborhood…
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(Please be patient as the video may take a few moments to load.)

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Changing Neighborhoods: The Friday Nights TV

Fights, Driving Across the Color Line, and White Flight.

Storyteller Susan O’Halloran remembers as a young girl
the southwest side of Chicago in the sixties.
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(Please be patient as the video may take a few moments to load.)

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