Jazz music began in New Orleans, Louisiana. The musical genre has roots in European traditions, blues, and ragtime. It also derives from work songs sung by slaves on southern plantations. Jazz was not a popular musical genre until the 20th century when African Americans moved to Chicago during the Great Migration to escape the Jim […]
Project Topics: Race and Ethnicity
Daily Life in Chicago Tenements
Overcrowded, poorly built, and unsanitary, tenement housing was one of the worst places to live, yet for so many it was their only choice. Newly settled immigrants as well as working-class families struggled to make a living and had to do so in deplorable conditions. There would be those that tried to change the situation, but their successes would only be temporary. Low-income housing is still a struggle for many today, and the roots of the issue can be traced back to those early days when tenements were the only option.
African American Public Housing
The creation of Public Housing for African Americans in Chicago in the 20th Century.
Factors Behind the Chicago Race Riots of 1919
This project looks at the major contributing factors that led up to the Chicago Race Riots during the “Red Summer” of 1919.
Chicago’s Catholic Immigrants and Church Architecture, 1850s to 1924
While modern Catholic immigrants into Chicago are from Central and South America, Chicago’s Catholic churches, built from the 1850s to 1924, reflect the European immigrants who were their original parishes. The reasons behind the styles, though, are less straightforward.
The Television Show Good Times and the Chicago Public Housing System
Good Times and Urbanization and Chicago’s Public Housing System
Chicago Freedom Movement
This project is about the Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement.
