Misplaced Pages

#933066

32-671: The Washington Park Subdivision is the name of the historic 3- city block by 4-city block subdivision in the northwest corner of the Woodlawn community area , on the South Side of Chicago in Illinois that stands in the place of the original Washington Park Race Track . The area evolved as a redevelopment of the land previously occupied by the racetrack. It was originally an exclusively white neighborhood that included residential housing, amusement parks, and beer gardens . During

64-668: A broad class of histories. The play Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry 's struggles in this neighborhood. Due to the non-rectangular shape of the Washington Park community area , the original Washington Park Race Track actually occupied the Southern two-thirds of the Washington Park Subdivision, which is a 4-city block (8 east-west half-blocks) by 3-city block area in northwest corner of

96-544: A central space that is semi-private. They may contain a mixture of uses, with commercial or retail functions on the ground floor. Perimeter blocks are a key component of many European cities and are an urban form that allows very high urban densities to be achieved without high-rise buildings. In North American English and Australian English , the word "block" is used as an informal unit of distance. For example, someone giving directions might say, "It's three blocks from here", meaning either literally three blocks distant (in

128-484: A city grid) or the equivalent of three blocks without a grid. Since there is no standard dimension for city blocks, and they are typically rectangular in shape, meaning a block and one direction is a different length than a block in another, colloquial directions involving blocks as proxies for measurements in feet or meters are obviously both imprecise and relative. List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 271 Too Many Requests If you report this error to

160-439: A grid system, the block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets . City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, and form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric. City blocks may be subdivided into any number of smaller land lots usually in private ownership, though in some cases, it may be other forms of tenure. City blocks are usually built-up to varying degrees and thus form

192-545: A progressive alternative to violence. The board representatives provided model contracts drafted by the Chicago Plan Commission as part of their efforts. By 1928, the Hyde Park Herald reported that the covenants prevailed throughout the South Side , and 95% of the homes in the subdivision were covenanted. Most African American neighborhoods were bounded by covenanted areas since 85% of Chicago

224-460: A progressive anti-covenant candidate. Eventually, in Shelley v. Kraemer , 334 U.S. 1 (1948), which was argued by Thurgood Marshall , the U. S. Supreme Court declared restrictive covenants in general unenforceable. City block A city block , residential block , urban block , or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design . In a city with

256-513: A series of cells or Superblocks, each containing a network of narrower streets.” Superblocks can also be retroactively superimposed on pre-existing grid plan by changing the traffic rules and streetscape of internal streets within the superblock, as in the case of Barcelona 's superilles ( Catalan for superblocks). Each superilla has nine city blocks, with speed limits on the internal roads slowed to 10–20 km/h (6.2–12.4 mph), through traffic disallowed, and through travel possible only on

288-609: Is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m × 274 m). In Chicago , a typical city block is 330 by 660 feet (100 m × 200 m), meaning that 16 east-west blocks or 8 north-south blocks measure one mile, which has been adopted by other US cities. In much of the United States and Canada, the addresses follow a block and lot number system , in which each block of a street is allotted 100 building numbers. The blocks in central Melbourne, Australia , are also 330 by 660 feet (100 m × 200 m), formed by splitting

320-419: Is also considered an important study of African American, Chicago and legal history . While the purchase case proceeded, some landlords subdivided properties and rented them to blacks at a premium. Some realtors began encouraging white families to move out so that they could rent properties to African Americans. Smaller property owners were pressed to sell to realtors or directly to African Americans because

352-469: Is an important informal unit of length equal to the distance between two streets of a street grid. In most cities of the New World that were planned rather than developing gradually over a long period of time, streets are typically laid out on a grid plan of square or rectangular city blocks. Using the perimeter block development principle, city blocks are developed so that buildings are located along

SECTION 10

#1732783769934

384-731: The African American population in Chicago grew from 30,000 to 236,000. In this time, Chicago's demographics changed so that instead of having this population diluted in scattered places, it was concentrated in two large strips of land. The concentration was enforced by violence at first, but restrictive covenants became the preferred way to enforce segregation after a few decades. When necessary, community organizations used violence to pursue their segregationist purposes, and between 1917 and 1921, bomb use discouraged encroachment into majority white neighborhoods. The bombs were used at

416-615: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decided to represent the buyer in the United States Supreme Court . The case caught the attention of national real estate magazines and African American newspapers. The U. S. Supreme Court eventually reversed that ruling stating the application of res judicata in this case would violate Fourteenth Amendment . The play Raisin in

448-744: The Woodlawn community area and bounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Drive to the west, South Cottage Grove Avenue to the East, East 60th Street to the North and East 63rd Street to the South. This is the area directly south of Washington Park and both south and east of the Washington Park community area. It would be part of the Washington Park community area if the community area were to complete its logical proper rectangle. Between 1884 and 1905,

480-444: The Sun was inspired by Lorraine Hansberry 's time in the neighborhood after her father won the repeal of restrictive covenants. The result of Hansberry v. Lee led to racial succession. White tenants were often evicted to make way for higher-paying African American renters. By 1950, the subdivision was over 99 percent African American. The Hansberry case is a seminal case in civil procedure and class action legal studies. It

512-465: The example of Philadelphia , New York City adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 for a more extensive grid plan . Some variations of the interpretation of city blocks include superblocks, subblocks, and perimeter blocks. A superblock , or super-block , is an area of urban land that is bounded by arterial roads and the size of multiple typically sized city blocks. Within the superblock,

544-410: The late 1920s and 1930s, the area became the subject of discriminatory twenty-year covenants (private real-estate agreements), which at first had been upheld by the United States Supreme Court but were later determined to be unenforceable by the court, beginning with a challenge in a seminal case brought by Carl Hansberry . The case is a vital part of legal studies and considered an important part of

576-461: The local road network, if any, is designed to serve only local needs. Superblocks can also contain an orthogonal internal road network, including those based on a grid plan or quasi-grid plan. That typology is prevalent in Japan and China, for example. Chen defines the supergrid and superblock urban morphology in that context as follows: “The Supergrid is a large-scale net of wide roads that defines

608-498: The neighborhood was undergoing a racial transformation. The conditions of this neighborhood are described in a section of Black Metropolis by St. Clair Drake and Horace Roscoe Cayton . The Supreme Court ruling and several similar rulings led to the racial transformation of the Woodlawn and Hyde Park community areas . Political futures were determined by positions taken on this issue. Future five-term Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley ran for Cook County Sheriff in 1946 as

640-578: The neighborhood. This led to the Hansberry v. Lee , 311 U.S. 32 (1940) case. Defendants argued that the stipulation made previously in Burke v. Kleiman that more than 95% of the owners had signed the covenant was false and the case should be re-adjudicated. Plaintiffs, while admitting to the fact, contended that the principle of res judicata barred courts from rehearing the old arguments. The Illinois courts ruled in favor of plaintiffs. However

672-596: The northwest boundary of the subdivision at 5922 South Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. Although they were previously rare, racially restrictive covenants among property owners that outlawed the purchase, lease, or occupation of their properties by African Americans became common in Chicago in the 1920s, following the Great Migration . Local businessmen and the University of Chicago became alarmed at

SECTION 20

#1732783769934

704-524: The one or the other side of Evans, Langley, Champlain, St. Lawrence, Rhodes, Eberhart, Vernon and South Park Avenues, between 60th and 63rd Streets and on 60th, 61st and 62nd Streets between South Park and Cottage Grove Avenues" on September 30, 1927, and they were recorded at the Cook County Register of Deeds on February 1, 1928. They were intended to be valid and in force until January 1, 1948. The Great Depression decreased white demand for

736-538: The perimeter of the block, with entrances facing the street, and semi-private courtyards in the rear of the buildings. This historic arrangement reflects organic development of structures and land usage, adapted to urban planning. Since the spacing of streets in grid plans varies so widely among cities, or even within cities, it is difficult to generalize about the size of a city block. Oblong blocks range considerably in width and length. The standard block in Manhattan

768-434: The perimeter roads. In a geoprocessing perspective there are two complementary ways of modeling city blocks: A block without sidewalks is always within a block with sidewalks . The geometric subtraction of a block without sidewalks from block with sidewalks , contains the sidewalk, the alley, and any other non-lot sub-structure. A perimeter block is a type of city block which is built up on all sides surrounding

800-512: The physical containers or "streetwalls" of public space. Most cities are composed of a greater or lesser variety of sizes and shapes of urban block. For example, many pre-industrial cores of cities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East tend to have irregularly shaped street patterns and urban blocks, while cities based on grids have much more regular arrangements. By extension, the word "block"

832-518: The plaintiffs, which was upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court of Illinois . The plaintiffs stipulated that as of 1928 more than 95% of the property owners signed the covenant. This stipulation was later proved false—only 54% had actually signed. In 1937, Carl Hansberry purchased a property from James Joseph Burke located at 6140 South Rhodes. Anna M. Lee, and other promoters of the covenants, sued to prevent Hansberry's family from living in

864-678: The prospect of poorer African Americans moving from the Black Belt due to a combination of racial succession and economic decline. In 1926, the United States Supreme Court upheld racially restrictive covenants in Corrigan v. Buckley ( 271 U.S. 323 (1926)). In 1927, the Chicago Real Estate Board (CREB) sent representatives throughout the city to promote such covenants, which it viewed as

896-543: The race track occupied part of the area now known as Washington Park Subdivision. After the city outlawed gambling, the area was redeveloped as a residential housing subdivision with neighboring commercial recreation such as the White City amusement park that flourished until the Great Depression . The neighborhood also included a beer garden that was remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright . Between 1900 and 1934,

928-404: The residences of African Americans as well as the properties of real estate agents and bankers. In 1919, African American banking magnate Jesse Binga , the owner of the first Chicago bank to be operated by African Americans, and the first African American who lived in the Washington Park Subdivision, endured five bombings of his home by angry whites. Binga lived on the block diagonally northwest of

960-552: The square blocks in an original grid with a narrow street down the middle. Many Old World cities have grown by accretion over time rather than being planned, making rectangular city blocks uncommon in the innermost development among most European cities , for example. An exception is represented by those cities that were founded as Roman military settlements, and that often preserve the original grid layout around two main orthogonal axes (such as Turin, Italy ) and cities heavily damaged during World War II (like Frankfurt ). Following

992-466: The subdivision's properties. A few well-off African Americans convinced some owners to sell properties to them. The most famous case was that of Dr. James L. Hall, who rented a property located at 419 E. 60th St. from the white Issac Kleiman. In 1933, Olive Ida Burke (the wife of Mr. Burke—a future defendant in the famous Hansberry v. Lee case) sued Kleiman in the case now known as Burke v. Kleiman . The circuit court granted an injunction in favor of

Washington Park Subdivision - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-559: Was covenanted. Between 1928 and 1940, the subdivision was a legal battleground. In 1928, landlords in the subdivision signed the covenants in which they agreed that they would not rent to non-whites. The language of the covenants state that no properties in the subdivision "...shall be sold, given, conveyed or leased to any negro or negroes, and no permission or license to use or occupy any part thereof shall be given to any negro except house servants or janitors or chauffeurs employed thereon..." The covenants were signed by "owners of land on

#933066