Content provided in partnership with

Black Housing, White Finance: African American Housing And Home Ownership In Evanston, Illinois, Before 1940 - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Social History, Winter, 1999 by Andrew Wiese

<< Page 1 Continued from page 4. Previous | Next

Although African Americans' value for home ownership was rooted in the South, the desire for home ownership in communities such as Evanston was not simply a relic of southern black culture. Like any cultural practice, it persisted in Evanston because of its usefulness over time. In Evanston and other suburbs, blue collar families often used housing as a means to economic security. Before the development of a welfare state, clear title to a house and lot, plus a garden and small livestock out back, promised the certainty of shelter and sustenance in the face of unstable employment or retirement without pension. In suburbs ranging from Englewood, New Jersey, to Pasadena and Richmond, California, African Americans raised gardens and livestock as a supplement to income (as well as a source of familiar foods), and in numerous suburbs, African Americans rented rooms or apartments in homes that they owned as a means of earning extra income.

Most Popular Articles in Reference: The importance of understanding organizational culture; Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students; What factors attract foreign direct investment?; Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...; How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques; More »

In Evanston, these practices were apparently widespread. Oral histories recalled the prevalence of gardens and fruit trees among early black suburbanites, and on the far west side, chickens and other small livestock were not uncommon. [20] Furthermore, census data reveal that between 1920 and 1940, 25 percent to 40 percent of black Evanstonians used their houses as a source of rental income, and on some streets the majority of black home owners collected rent from tenants. The propensity of black families to use homes as rental properties even shaped the physical landscape of west Evanston. By 1930, about 40 percent of African Americans on the far west side lived in two-family homes, and on some streets two-family dwellings were the dominant housing type. At that date, a careful observer would have noted not only the frequency of contractor-built two-flats, but other signs of multi-family occupancy as well: exterior stairways, separate mail boxes and water meters, and extra refuse cans on trash day. [21] In contrast to the ornamental landscape of neighborhoods east of the railroad tracks, the landscape of black west Evanston reflected strategies of economic survival and mobility among the working class families who settled there.

In addition to fulfilling a variety of economic functions, home ownership also served African Americans as a means of preserving and reconstituting families in the midst of migration. With home places left behind in the South and families separated by hundreds of miles, African American migrants sought numerous ways of cementing and re-establishing family ties in their new home. Sharing shelter and living expenses was one means. Thus, in 1920, almost 30 percent of African American households in Evanston included extended family members, and multi-generational and extended family households remained common in west Evanston over many decades. Property ownership helped southern migrants establish roots and transform the place they worked into a place they could call home. [22] For all of these reasons--short-term subsistence, long-term security, enhanced social status, preservation of family ties, and the fulfillment of southern dreams--home ownership was a central goal among black suburbanites in Evanston befo re World War Two.

Black Housing, White Finance: African American Housing And Home Ownership In Evanston, Illinois, Before 1940 - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Social History, Winter, 1999 by Andrew Wiese

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference