Chicago is a cultural center not only for what it offers tourists—deep dish pizza, Lake Michigan, the “L” train, and the Bean—but also for its deeply rooted activism throughout the city’s neighborhoods, with residents who are passionate about human rights and equality. Several of Chicago’s neighborhoods can be credited with progressing movements such as the Labor Movement and the Gay Liberation Movement; here are just a few of the city’s neighborhoods that hold a history of activism.

The West Loop

The Haymarket Memorial commemorating the Haymarket Affair in West Loop Chicago
The Haymarket Memorial commemorates the Haymarket Affair in West Loop. / photo by Sajith T S / CC BY-SA 2.0

Today, The West Loop is a popular neighborhood filled with restaurants, shops, and modern offices, but in May of 1886, it was the epicenter of the Haymarket Affair. During the 1800s, strikes by industrial workers were becoming more and more common as the Industrial Revolution created dangerous conditions, low wages, and extremely long workdays—and Chicago was no different.

On May 4th of 1886, Chicago workers rights activists organized a protest against the killing and injury of several workers by the Chicago Police Department during a strike the previous day at McCormick Reaper Works. On the evening of May 4th, Haymarket Square filled with approximately 2,000 workers and activists. The rally began with speeches from activists such as August Spies and Albert Parsons. Toward the end of the initially peaceful protest, Chicago Police arrived to disperse the crowd. The police intervention triggered an outbreak of violence that resulted in the death of seven officers and at least one civilian activist.

Although the Haymarket Affair didn’t win all the demands labor activists were calling for during that time, the event is considered a significant one in the labor movement, and the site at 151-199 N. Desplaines St. was eventually designated as a Chicago landmark.

Pilsen

A front view of Benito Juarez Community Academy in Pilsen Chicago
In Pilsen, Raquel Guerrero led the campaign to open Benito Juarez Community Academy. / photo by Natalia Wilson / CC BY-SA 2.0

Pilsen is a perennially cool Chicago neighborhood; its streets are full of art and galleries, Mexican cuisine, and a lively nightlife scene. Pilsen is also a neighborhood known for its activists and their accomplishments. One of Pilsen’s most influential activists was Raquel Guerrero, a mother who helped lead efforts to open Benito Juarez Community Academy in the 1970s.

Guerrero, along with many other mothers and community organizers such as Inez Loredo, Carmen Ortiz, Lucy Gutierrez, Teresa Fraga, Rudy Lozano, and Mary Gonzales, saw the ways in which the Chicago Board of Education was discriminating against their neighborhood. Although the schools in Pilsen were serving a Latino and bilingual community, there were no bilingual teachers or cross-cultural courses at the schools in the area.

The need for representation within their children’s education inspired Pilsen mothers and activists to petition the Chicago Board of Education in 1972 for a new high school to meet the community’s needs, but their request was denied—and their request would be denied once more. In June 1973, community organizers staged a boycott at Froebel High School in Pilsen that turned into a three-day occupation resulting in protests and rallies in support of the activists’ demands.

It wasn’t until the summer of 1974 that Gonzales and Guerrero attended a Chicago Board of Education meeting with their neighbors by their side. The proposal for funds to open a new, more accommodating high school in Pilsen was on the agenda. As the board meeting went on, more Pilsen activists marched downtown in support of the demand for a new high school. That day, Pilsen students, mothers, and activists finally got what they had been asking for.

Boystown

Rainbow flags and rainbow street lamps line the streets of Boystown Chicago
Boystown was home to some of the earliest LGBTQ+ rights efforts in the country.

Today Boystown is known as one of Chicago’s liveliest and most accepting neighborhoods, where all genders, people, and sexualities are welcome. The neighborhood is a result of decades of activism for LGBTQ+ liberation.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Chicago was a growing city where people flocked to for work, opportunities, and the chance to be more anonymous than they would be in smaller towns. This allowed many gay, lesbian, and queer people to find pockets of community and safety in the city. The setting of the city also provided space for like-minded people to organize. In 1924, Henry Gerber formed The Society for Human Rights, which was the country’s very first documented gay rights organization. This organization provided a sense of community for queer Chicagoans and published the nation’s first gay rights newsletter, “Friendship and Freedom.”

It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that what we know today as Boystown began to flourish. Although queer people began moving here in the 1960s and 1970s, it was still extremely unsafe—and illegal—to be openly gay. As the population of queer people grew in Boystown and other neighborhoods, so did police raids and violence against the community. Organizations such as The Mattachine Society aided in the legal defense of those arrested in police raids. They also organized a 24-hour hotline for the queer community.

In 1971, the second Pride Parade was moved to the Boystown neighborhood. The Stonewall Riots and Pride Parades across the country sparked change in politicians, lawmakers, and activists. During this time, Chicago politicians such as Alderman Clifford P. Kelley, Mayor Jane Byrne, and Mayor Harold Washington made demands for the city to change laws surrounding homosexuality. The activism of these city officials and gay rights leaders lead to anti-discrimination laws in the 1980s and 1990s.

North Lawndale

A mosaic mural depicts a man holding a child in the air surrounded by flowers
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived in North Lawndale during his fight for fair housing practices in Chicago.

Dr. Martin Lurther King, Jr. once called the Chicago neighborhood North Lawndale home. Although Dr. King was not a Chicago native, he took notice of the discriminatory rental and mortgage lending practices in the city, also known as redlining. These unjust practices led Dr. King to form the Chicago Freedom Movement and move to North Lawndale in 1966. This movement led by Dr. King, James Bevel, and Al Raby called for fair housing in Chicago as well as improvement and investment in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods.

In July of 1966, Dr. King led a fair housing rally at Soldier Field; it's estimated that over 30,000 people attended that day. King, Bevel, and Raby continued to lead successful actions throughout that summer. In August, the negotiations between the city and activists resulted in The Summit Agreement. This agreement promised public housing and led to the Mortgage Bankers Association making mortgages available to anyone regardless of race. King later called the agreement, “the most significant program ever conceived to make open housing a reality,” but recognized that it was only “the first step in a 1,000-mile journey."

King stayed in Chicago until 1967 but was disappointed with the city’s lack of response to The Summit Agreement. Although the city of Chicago didn't follow through on their promises, King, Bevel, and Raby continued their work, and in 1968, the Fair Housing Act was passed by President Johnson.

King’s activism still inspires Chicagoans today. Neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides such as Bronzeville, Englewood, and Hyde Park are home to some of the city’s most important movements today. Black Lives Matter Chicago works in these neighborhoods and across the city to create just and equitable systems for BIPOC. Organizations like BLM Chicago are a prime example of the ways in which the activists of Chicago’s past live on today.