Author: Motley, Willard.Title: Knock On Any Door.Book Description: Hardcover. Slightly soiled and worn binding; contents are good. Signed by the author.
Willard Francis Motley was an African-American author. Motley published a column in the Chicago Defender under the pen-name Bud Billiken. Motley also worked as a freelance writer, and later founded and published the Hull House Magazine and worked in the Federal Writers Project.In 1947 his first novel, Knock on Any Door, was critically acclaimed. In this novel, the main character, Nick, haunts West Madison Street and, to make money, allows himself to be picked up by gay men, described as “phonies.”
Novelist Willard Motley was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 14, 1909 to parents Florence “Flossie” Motley, his mother, and a man referred to by the family only as “Bryant,” who was his biological father. Bryant was a 36-year-old Pullman porter living in the Motley family home at the time. His mother was the daughter of Archibald, a Pullman porter and Mary “Mae” Frederica Huff Motley, a public school teacher, both of whom hastily married his 14 year old mother to Bryant during her pregnancy so that Willard Motley's birth would not be illegitimate. After the birth, the marriage was annulled.
Willard Motley was told growing up that his grandparents, Archibald Sr. and Mary, were his parents, and his mother, Florence, was his sister. Willard Motley and his uncle, Archibald Motley Jr., who would later become a prominent artist, were raised as brothers. Bryant impregnated Flossie again, resulting in the birth of his sister, Rita Motley who was also raised as a child of Mary and Archibald Motley, Sr.
Motley's first job came at the age of 13 when he wrote a weekly column under the pseudonym “Bud Billiken” in the children's section of the Chicago Defender, one of the nation's largest black newspapers. Over time his articles became one of the more popular features of the newspaper. Motley meanwhile attended Englewood High School, graduating in 1929. He considered attending the University of Wisconsin but was unable to do so due to financial limitations. Instead he returned to his family home and went to New York in 1930 and to the western United States in 1936 to inspire his writings. He also worked at different jobs throughout the years, including jobs at a brewery, a neighborhood store, and a dress factory.
In 1939, at the age of 30, Motley left the family home permanently and moved to the Maxwell Street Neighborhood, a notorious Chicago slum known earlier as the site of Jane Addams' Hull House and later as the center of blues music in the city. While there, Motley began to conduct research on social conditions in the neighborhood and created Hull House Magazine to publish fiction about the area. Much of his research took him to the Cook County Jail, where he interviewed inmates about their lives. He wrote a narrative about the trial of Bernard “Knifey” Sawicki, which brought renewed attention to his ability as a writer.
Motley's most famous work, the novel, Knock on Any Door, appeared in 1947. The novel described the life of Nick Romano, an Italian American altar boy who was lured into crime because of his poverty and eventually becomes a hardened criminal due to the penal system. Knock on Any Door received glowing reviews in 1947 and made the New York Times Best Seller list after selling 47,000 copies in its first three weeks in print. In 1949 it was adapted into a movie of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart.
Later Motley novels included We Fished All Night (1951) and Let No Man Write My Epitaph, a 1958 novel which became a Columbia Pictures film in 1960. His final novel, Let Noon Be Fair, appeared in 1966 after his death. Willard Motley, who moved to Mexico City in 1952, died there on March 4, 1965.
Art galleries are traditionally quiet places filled with whispered words of criticism or praise or bewilderment. But Tuesday afternoon it seemed particularly noisy in the Sidney R. Yates Gallery on the fourth floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, where a handful of people wandered through a spectacular exhibition titled "Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist."
The noise was not unpleasant; rather, it enhanced the viewing experience. People talked louder than usual: "This one is really amazing." "So colorful and vibrant." On the east side of the gallery, where large windows displayed a fighting-toward-spring Grant Park, was a video monitor looping a 5-minute, 55-second film by Charles Stone III of images by the artist and words from experts and critics. In the hallway leading to the gallery there was music: "Hot Stuff" from 1928 by Fess Williams and his Joy Boys, and "Jai Deux Amours," a 1930 recording by Josephine Baker.
The music, all 10 tunes of it, was jazz, and as my colleague Howard Reich rightly observed in print a couple of weeks ago, "Though not all of Motleys paintings concern music … its the jazz life that animates his world and this exhibition."
Hes right. Motleys jazz club paintings — Reich writes that they allow you to "experience something that no photograph can convey with comparable intensity: the energy, movement, music and noise of Chicago jazz as it came of age" — are the stars of this show. But there is much more. There are portraits of Motleys mother, Mary, and grandmother, Emma, and a 1933 self-portrait with a nude model. There are paintings from the time Motley spent in Paris.
He also went to Mexico to visit his nephew Willard, and near four paintings from those journeys in the 1950s is an enlarged typed page detailing the pairs adventures that includes this about a trip to San Miguel Allende: "We came in late, about 1 oclock, no bars open, no whorehouses in that town where we could have a drink. Stay at a very interesting hotel."
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Reading that and seeing these paintings of Mexico, I was startled by another noise.
It was a sound some 50 years old: the buzz of the doorbell in the second floor of an apartment in Old Town, followed by the sight of Willard Motley at the apartment door, wearing on his face a bright smile and carrying in his hands two rolls of bright silver pesos.
He had come to see my parents, who were his friends. The pesos were a gift for my young brother and me, and he brought them to us the two or three times he visited.
As terrific and enlightening as it is to have Archibald Motley evoked in such a vivid exhibition (running through August), it must be remembered that his nephew is no less important.
Willard Motley was famous and successful for a time but is now mostly forgotten. If he is remembered at all, it is for a few words out of the millions he wrote: "Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse."
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Those words came from Nick Romano, the protagonist of Motleys 1947 novel, "Knock on Any Door," and were further immortalized a couple of years later by John Derek in the film of the same name. Romano is a former altar boy sent to reform school for some petty crimes. He comes out hardened and spirals downward, eventually winding up on trial for killing a cop.
Horace Clayton reviewed the book for the Tribune, writing, "Chicago has produced many great writers …. But of all of them, (Theodore) Dreiser not excepted … only Motley has dealt in such detail with the nuances of feeling — the delicate balance between love and hate, cruelty and kindness — which exists in the human personality."
In 1947, Motley was on top of the world. But it had not been an easy climb. He was born out of wedlock and grew up believing that his grandparents were his parents, his mother having moved to New York after his birth. The family lived in what was then the virtually all-white Englewood neighborhood. His "older brother," Archibald, was actually his uncle. Nearly 20 years older than Willard, Archibald convinced him of the power of creativity, and when Willard was 13 he sent a short story to the Chicago Defender newspaper. The editors were so impressed that they offered him a weekly column, and thus did he become the first of many to write under the byline of Bud Billiken, a mythical figure created by the paper to tell childrens stories and a character celebrated for decades in the eponymous South Side parade that takes place every August and is the oldest and largest African-American parade in the country.
Willard couldnt find a job after graduating from Englewood High School and so wandered the Depression-ravaged country before returning here in 1939.
He lived in down-and-out conditions in the Maxwell Street area, published some short fiction in the Hull House Magazine and wrote for the Works Project Administrations Federal Writers Project.
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Then he wrote "Knock on Any Door" and followed that hit with 1951s "We Fished All Night," about the impact of World War II on three young Chicago men. It was panned by the critics and ignored by the public. But in 1958 came "Let No Man Write My Epitaph," a best-seller that picked up the lives of some minor characters in "Knock on Any Door" and became a 1960 movie starring Burl Ives, James Darren and Ella Fitzgerald.
He wound up being hounded by the IRS and spent his last years in near-poverty, some of those living in Mexico, where he adopted a son and wrote his final novel, "Let Noon Be Fair." It was published a year after his death in 1965.
His uncle Archibald outlived him by more than 15 years, painted more paintings and now has this fine and exciting show. There is a lengthy and detailed biography of the painter in the entrance to the gallery. And while those old jazz songs play, you can learn about him and see photos of him and read some of the things he said over the decades in interviews, such as, "Give the artist of the Race a chance to express himself in his own individual way … and we shall have a great variety of art, a great art."
There is also on the walls a photo of Willard Motley, seen in profile with Archibald at a 1947 book party for "Knock on Any Door." There are no quotes from the author on the walls, but you might hear the echo of something he once said, in response to critics who grumbled about this black man writing about white characters: "My race is the human race."
When Willard Motley graduated from Engelwood High School, he thought he might move to Paris to become a writer, as his older brother had done. He bicycled to New York City, where his mother then lived, and was promptly told to return to Chicago—all the material he needed could be found there as readily as the European capital. The original author of the Bud Billiken columns in The Defender, Motley's first two novels, Knock On Anybody's Door and We Fished All Night, did, indeed, make use of his hometown. Knock On Anybody's Door sold nearly 50,000 copies in its first three weeks and was turned into a film in which protagonist Nick Roman famously utters the line about living fast, dying young and having a beautiful corpse. Motley was criticized in his life for being a black man writing about white characters, a middle-class man writing about the lower class, and a closeted homosexual writing about heterosexual urges. But those more kindly disposed to his work, and there were plenty, admired his grit and heart, and pointed out that, at least in his first novel, Motley did explore homosexual lifestyles. For Motley, who grew up the son of a Pullman Porter at 350 W. 60th Street, and for years lived in a former sweat shop on Halsted, just north of Maxwell Street, Chicago was more complicated than just its racial or sexual tensions, and as a writer his exploration was expansive, even publishing several children's stories.
Willard Motley was an African-American writer who grew up in one of the only African-American families residing in Chicagos Englewood neighborhood.
The Chicago Defender published Motleys fiction when he was only 13 years old. He was then writing a weekly column called "Bud Says" under the pseudonym "Bud Billikin" (which then give the name to an annual Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic).
Motley lived near Maxwell Street Market, where he became associated with Hull House, In 1940 he wrote for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers Project.
In 1947 his first novel, Knock on Any Door, was critically acclaimed. In this novel, the main character, Nick, haunts West Madison Street and, to make money, allows himself to be picked up by gay men, described as “phonies.”
His second novel, We Fished All Night, did not receive the same success. Motley moved to Mexico to start over.
His third novel, Let No Man Write My Epitaph continued the story of Knock on Any Door.
On March 4, 1965, Motley died in Mexico City.
Willard Francis Motley (July 14, 1909 – March 4, 1965) was an African-American author. Motley published a column in the Chicago Defender under the pen-name Bud Billiken. Motley also worked as a freelance writer, and later founded and published the Hull House Magazine and worked in the Federal Writers Project. Motleys first and best known novel was Knock on Any Door, which was made into a movie by the same name (1947).
Contents
1Early life and career
2Criticism
3Death and legacy
4Bibliography
4.1Novels
4.2Nonfiction
4.3Letters
5References
6External links
Early life and career
Motley was born and grew up in the Englewood neighborhood, South Side, Chicago, in one of the few African-American families residing there. His father was a Pullman porter. Motley graduated from Lewis-Champlain grammar school, and Englewood High School.[3] He is related to the noted artist Archibald Motley. The two were raised as brothers, although Archibald was in fact Willards uncle. He was hired by Robert S. Abbott to write a childrens column called "Bud Says" under the pseudonym "Bud Billiken", for the Chicago Defender.[4]
He traveled to New York, California and the western states, earning a living through various menial jobs, as well as by writing for the radio and newspapers. Returning to Chicago in 1939, he lived near the Maxwell Street Market, which was to figure prominently in his later writing. He became associated with Hull House, and helped found the Hull House Magazine, in which some of his fiction appeared. In 1940 he wrote for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers Project along with Richard Wright and Nelson Algren.[4] In 1947 his first novel, Knock on Any Door, appeared to critical acclaim. A work of gritty naturalism, it concerns the life of Nick Romano, an Italian-American altar boy who turns to crime because of poverty and the difficulties of the immigrant experience, who says the famous phrase "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!"[5][6][7] It was an immediate hit, selling 47,000 copies during its first three weeks in print. In 1949 it was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart. In response to critics who charged Motley with avoiding issues of race by writing about white characters, Motley said, "My race is the human race." His second novel, We Fished All Night,[8] was not hailed as a success, and after it appeared Motley moved to Mexico to start over. His third novel, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, picks up the story of Knock on Any Door. Columbia Pictures made it into a movie in 1960. Ella Fitzgeralds music for the film was released on the album Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from "Let No Man Write My Epitaph".
Criticism
According to the citation statement for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame awards, "Motley was criticized in his life for being a black man writing about white characters, a middle-class man writing about the lower class, and a closeted homosexual writing about heterosexual urges. But those more kindly disposed to his work, and there were plenty, admired his grit and heart....Chicago was more complicated than just its racial or sexual tensions, and as a writer his exploration was expansive...." [9] Motley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.
Death and legacy
On March 4, 1965, Motley died in Mexico City, Mexico at age 55. One final novel, Let Noon Be Fair, was published the following year. Since 1929, Chicago has held an annual Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, (which served as his pen name during his early career at the Chicago Defender) on the second Saturday of August.[10] The parade travels through the citys Bronzeville, Grand Boulevard and Washington Park neighborhoods on the south side. The bulk of Motleys archive is held in Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.[11]
Bibliography
Novels
Knock on Any Door, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1947; Northern Illinois University Press, 1989, ISBN 9780875805436
We Fished All Night, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1951
Let No Man Write My Epitaph, Random House, 1958
Let Noon Be Fair, 1966; Pan Books, 1969 – published posthumously.
Chicago (/ʃɪˈkɑːɡoʊ/ (listen) shih-KAH-goh, locally also /ʃɪˈkɔːɡoʊ/ shih-KAW-goh;[6] Miami-Illinois: Shikaakwa; Ojibwe: Zhigaagong) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third-most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census,[7] it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County, the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, the 39th-largest city in the world as of 2018.
On the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century.[8][9] The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless,[10] but Chicagos population continued to grow.[9] Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and architecture, such as the Chicago School, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper.[11][12]
Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is the financial center of the U.S. Midwest. It has the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone.[13] OHare International Airport is routinely ranked among the worlds top six busiest airports.[14] The region is the nations railroad hub.[15] The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018.[16] Chicagos economy is diverse, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.[13]
Chicago is a major tourist destination. Chicagos culture has contributed much to the visual arts, literature, film, theater, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, dance, and music (particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel,[17] and electronic dance music, including house music). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Chicago area also hosts the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Chicago, among other institutions of learning. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams.
Etymology and nicknames
Main article: Nicknames of Chicago
See also: Windy City (nickname)
The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion; it is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps". The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir.[18] Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew profusely in the area.[19] According to his diary of late September 1687:
... when we arrived at the said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region.[19]
The city has had several nicknames throughout its history, such as the Windy City, Chi-Town, Second City, and City of the Big Shoulders.[20]
History
Main article: History of Chicago
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Chicago history.
Beginnings
Traditional Potawatomi regalia on display at the Field Museum of Natural History
In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi, a Native American tribe who had succeeded the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples in this region.[21]
An artists rendering of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871
Home Insurance Building (1885)
Court of Honor at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893
The first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African descent, perhaps born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago".[22][23][24]
In 1795, following the victory of the new United States in the Northwest Indian War, an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the US for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt.[25]
After the War of 1812, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago and sent west of the Mississippi River as part of the federal policy of Indian removal.[26][27][28]
19th century
The location and course of the Illinois and Michigan Canal (completed 1848)
0:50
State and Madison Streets, once known as the busiest intersection in the world (1897)
On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200.[28] Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837,[29] and for several decades was the worlds fastest-growing city.[30]
As the site of the Chicago Portage,[31] the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River.[32][33][34][35]
A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy.[36] The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts.[37]
In the 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas, the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery.[38] These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for US president at the 1860 Republican National Convention, which was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam. He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War.
To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicagos Common Council approved Chesbroughs plan to build the United States first comprehensive sewerage system.[39] The project raised much of central Chicago to a new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings.[40] While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the citys health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River, and subsequently into Lake Michigan, polluting the citys primary freshwater source.
The city responded by tunneling two miles (3.2 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River, which flows into the Mississippi River.[41][42][43]
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, a large section of the city at the time.[44][45][46] Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards, survived intact,[47] and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction.[48][49] During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed the worlds first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction.[50][51]
The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township, which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and the Jefferson Township, which now makes up most of Chicagos Northwest Side.[52] The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents.
Chicagos flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes, and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the citys population).[53][54]
Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike. Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicagos immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889.[55] Programs that were developed there became a model for the new field of social work.[56]
During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states.[57]
The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks, which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicagos park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago.[58]
In the 1800s, Chicago became the nations railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals.[59][60] In 1883, Chicagos railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones.[61] This system for telling time spread throughout the continent.
In 1893, Chicago hosted the Worlds Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential worlds fair in history.[62][63] The University of Chicago, formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the Washington and Jackson Parks.[64][65]
20th and 21st centuries
Men outside a soup kitchen during the Great Depression (1931)
1900 to 1939
Aerial motion film photography of Chicago in 1914 as filmed by A. Roy Knabenshue
During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African Americans from the Southern United States. Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903.[66] This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance, part of the New Negro Movement, in art, literature, and music.[67] Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, also occurred.[68]
The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the Gangster Era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters, including Al Capone, Dion OBanion, Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era.[69] Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentines Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran.[70]
Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization. The organization, formed in 1924, was called the Society for Human Rights. It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Police and political pressure caused the organization to disband.[71]
The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the citys heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of the Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat.[72]
From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago.[72] Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief, these organizations were created by socialist and communist groups. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers, the unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side.
In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida, during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition Worlds Fair.[73] The theme of the fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicagos founding.[74]
1940 to 1979
Boy from Chicago, 1941
The Chicago Picasso (1967) inspired a new era in urban public art.
During World War II, the city of Chicago alone produced more steel than the United Kingdom every year from 1939 – 1945, and more than Nazi Germany from 1943 – 1945.[citation needed]
Protesters in Grant Park outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention
The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace in the second wave, as hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards.[75]
On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the worlds first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945.[76]
Mayor Richard J. Daley, a Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics. In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under OHare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County.[77]
By the 1960s, white residents in several neighborhoods left the city for the suburban areas – in many American cities, a process known as white flight – as Blacks continued to move beyond the Black Belt.[78] While home loan discriminatory redlining against blacks continued, the real estate industry practiced what became known as blockbusting, completely changing the racial composition of whole neighborhoods.[79] Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in the steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement, which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders.[80]
Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside the convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police.[81] Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower, which in 1974 became the worlds tallest building), University of Illinois at Chicago, McCormick Place, and OHare International Airport, were undertaken during Richard J. Daleys tenure.[82] In 1979, Jane Byrne, the citys first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicagos school system out of a financial crisis.[83]
1980 to present
In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Washingtons first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of a heart attack soon after.[84] Washington was succeeded by 6th ward Alderman Eugene Sawyer, who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election.
Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development, as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying the runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicagos longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term.[85][86]
In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m3) of water, affecting buildings throughout the district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power.[87] The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $1.95 billion.[87]
On February 23, 2011, former Illinois Congressman and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel won the mayoral election.[88] Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015.[89] Lori Lightfoot, the citys first African American woman mayor and its first openly LGBTQ Mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019.[90] All three city-wide elective offices were held by women (and women of color) for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lightfoot, the City Clerk was Anna Valencia and City Treasurer, Melissa Conyears-Ervin.[91]
On May 15th, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as the 57th Mayor of Chicago.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Chicago
Chicago skyline at sunset in October 2020, from near Fullerton Avenue looking south
Topography
Downtown and the North Side with beaches lining the waterfront
A satellite image of Chicago
Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois on the southwestern shores of freshwater Lake Michigan. It is the principal city in the Chicago metropolitan area, situated in both the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes region. The city rests on a continental divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds. In addition to it lying beside Lake Michigan, two rivers—the Chicago River in downtown and the Calumet River in the industrial far South Side—flow either entirely or partially through the city.[92][93]
Chicagos history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River historically handled much of the regions waterborne cargo, todays huge lake freighters use the citys Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake also provides another positive effect: moderating Chicagos climate, making waterfront neighborhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer.[94]
When Chicago was founded in 1837, most of the early building was around the mouth of the Chicago River, as can be seen on a map of the citys original 58 blocks.[95] The overall grade of the citys central, built-up areas is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of its overall natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation otherwise. The average land elevation is 579 ft (176.5 m) above sea level. While measurements vary somewhat,[96] the lowest points are along the lake shore at 578 ft (176.2 m), while the highest point, at 672 ft (205 m), is the morainal ridge of Blue Island in the citys far south side.[97]
While the Chicago Loop is the central business district, Chicago is also a city of neighborhoods. Lake Shore Drive runs adjacent to a large portion of Chicagos waterfront. Some of the parks along the waterfront include Lincoln Park, Grant Park, Burnham Park, and Jackson Park. There are 24 public beaches across 26 miles (42 km) of the waterfront.[98] Landfill extends into portions of the lake providing space for Navy Pier, Northerly Island, the Museum Campus, and large portions of the McCormick Place Convention Center. Most of the citys high-rise commercial and residential buildings are close to the waterfront.
An informal name for the entire Chicago metropolitan area is "Chicagoland", which generally means the city and all its suburbs, though different organizations have slightly different definitions.[99][100][101]
Communities
See also: Community areas in Chicago and Neighborhoods in Chicago
Community areas of Chicago
Major sections of the city include the central business district, called The Loop, and the North, South, and West Sides.[102] The three sides of the city are represented on the Flag of Chicago by three horizontal white stripes.[103] The North Side is the most-densely-populated residential section of the city, and many high-rises are located on this side of the city along the lakefront.[104] The South Side is the largest section of the city, encompassing roughly 60% of the citys land area. The South Side contains most of the facilities of the Port of Chicago.[105]
In the late-1920s, sociologists at the University of Chicago subdivided the city into 77 distinct community areas, which can further be subdivided into over 200 informally defined neighborhoods.[106][107]
Streetscape
Main article: Roads and expressways in Chicago
Chicagos streets were laid out in a street grid that grew from the citys original townsite plot, which was bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, North Avenue on the north, Wood Street on the west, and 22nd Street on the south.[108] Streets following the Public Land Survey System section lines later became arterial streets in outlying sections. As new additions to the city were platted, city ordinance required them to be laid out with eight streets to the mile in one direction and sixteen in the other direction, about one street per 200 meters in one direction and one street per 100 meters in the other direction. The grids regularity provided an efficient means of developing new real estate property. A scattering of diagonal streets, many of them originally Native American trails, also cross the city (Elston, Milwaukee, Ogden, Lincoln, etc.). Many additional diagonal streets were recommended in the Plan of Chicago, but only the extension of Ogden Avenue was ever constructed.[109]
In 2016, Chicago was ranked the sixth-most walkable large city in the United States.[110] Many of the citys residential streets have a wide patch of grass or trees between the street and the sidewalk itself. This helps to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk further away from the street traffic. Chicagos Western Avenue is the longest continuous urban street in the world.[111] Other notable streets include Michigan Avenue, State Street, Oak, Rush, Clark Street, and Belmont Avenue. The City Beautiful movement inspired Chicagos boulevards and parkways.[112]
Architecture
Further information: Architecture of Chicago, List of tallest buildings in Chicago, and List of Chicago Landmarks
The Chicago Building (1904–05) is a prime example of the Chicago School, displaying both variations of the Chicago window.
The destruction caused by the Great Chicago Fire led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era,[51] which would then be followed by many other cities around the world.[113] Today, Chicagos skyline is among the worlds tallest and densest.[114]
Some of the United States tallest towers are located in Chicago; Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) is the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere after One World Trade Center, and Trump International Hotel and Tower is the third tallest in the country.[115] The Loops historic buildings include the Chicago Board of Trade Building, the Fine Arts Building, 35 East Wacker, and the Chicago Building, 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments by Mies van der Rohe. Many other architects have left their impression on the Chicago skyline such as Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Charles B. Atwood, John Root, and Helmut Jahn.[116][117]
The Merchandise Mart, once first on the list of largest buildings in the world, currently listed as 44th-largest (as of 9 September 2013), had its own zip code until 2008, and stands near the junction of the North and South branches of the Chicago River.[118] Presently, the four tallest buildings in the city are Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower, also a building with its own zip code), Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Aon Center (previously the Standard Oil Building), and the John Hancock Center. Industrial districts, such as some areas on the South Side, the areas along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Northwest Indiana area are clustered.[119]
Chicago gave its name to the Chicago School and was home to the Prairie School, two movements in architecture.[120] Multiple kinds and scales of houses, townhouses, condominiums, and apartment buildings can be found throughout Chicago. Large swaths of the citys residential areas away from the lake are characterized by brick bungalows built from the early 20th century through the end of World War II. Chicago is also a prominent center of the Polish Cathedral style of church architecture. The Chicago suburb of Oak Park was home to famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed The Robie House located near the University of Chicago.[121][122]
A popular tourist activity is to take an architecture boat tour along the Chicago River.[123]
Monuments and public art
Replica of Daniel Chester Frenchs Statue of The Republic at the site of the Worlds Columbian Exposition
Main article: List of public art in Chicago
Chicago is famous for its outdoor public art with donors establishing funding for such art as far back as Benjamin Fergusons 1905 trust.[124] A number of Chicagos public art works are by modern figurative artists. Among these are Chagalls Four Seasons; the Chicago Picasso; Miros Chicago; Calders Flamingo; Oldenburgs Batcolumn; Moores Large Interior Form, 1953-54, Man Enters the Cosmos and Nuclear Energy; Dubuffets Monument with Standing Beast, Abakanowiczs Agora; and, Anish Kapoors Cloud Gate which has become an icon of the city. Some events which shaped the citys history have also been memorialized by art works, including the Great Northern Migration (Saar) and the centennial of statehood for Illinois. Finally, two fountains near the Loop also function as monumental works of art: Plensas Crown Fountain as well as Burnham and Bennetts Buckingham Fountain.[citation needed]
Climate
Main article: Climate of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Climate chart (explanation)
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
2.1 3218
1.9 3622
2.7 4731
3.6 5942
4.1 7052
4.1 8062
4 8568
4 8366
3.3 7558
3.2 6346
3.4 4935
2.6 3523
█ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F
█ Precipitation totals in inches
Metric conversion
The Chicago River during the January 2014 cold wave
The city lies within the typical hot-summer humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa), and experiences four distinct seasons.[125][126][127] Summers are hot and humid, with frequent heat waves. The July daily average temperature is 75.9 °F (24.4 °C), with afternoon temperatures peaking at 85.0 °F (29.4 °C). In a normal summer, temperatures reach at least 90 °F (32 °C) on as many as 23 days, with lakefront locations staying cooler when winds blow off the lake. Winters are relatively cold and snowy. Blizzards do occur, such as in winter 2011.[128] There are many sunny but cold days. The normal winter high from December through March is about 36 °F (2 °C). January and February are the coldest months. A polar vortex in January 2019 nearly broke the citys cold record of −27 °F (−33 °C), which was set on January 20, 1985.[129][130][131] Measurable snowfall can continue through the first or second week of April.[132]
Spring and autumn are mild, short seasons, typically with low humidity. Dew point temperatures in the summer range from an average of 55.7 °F (13.2 °C) in June to 61.7 °F (16.5 °C) in July.[133] They can reach nearly 80 °F (27 °C), such as during the July 2019 heat wave. The city lies within USDA plant hardiness zone 6a, transitioning to 5b in the suburbs.[134]
According to the National Weather Service, Chicagos highest official temperature reading of 105 °F (41 °C) was recorded on July 24, 1934.[135] Midway Airport reached 109 °F (43 °C) one day prior and recorded a heat index of 125 °F (52 °C) during the 1995 heatwave.[136] The lowest official temperature of −27 °F (−33 °C) was recorded on January 20, 1985, at OHare Airport.[133][136] Most of the citys rainfall is brought by thunderstorms, averaging 38 a year. The region is prone to severe thunderstorms during the spring and summer which can produce large hail, damaging winds, and occasionally tornadoes.[137]
Like other major cities, Chicago experiences an urban heat island, making the city and its suburbs milder than surrounding rural areas, especially at night and in winter. The proximity to Lake Michigan tends to keep the Chicago lakefront somewhat cooler in summer and less brutally cold in winter than inland parts of the city and suburbs away from the lake.[138] Northeast winds from wintertime cyclones departing south of the region sometimes bring the city lake-effect snow.[139]
Climate data for Chicago (Midway Airport), 1991–2020 normals,[a] extremes 1928–present
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Record high °F (°C)67
(19)75
(24)86
(30)92
(33)102
(39)107
(42)109
(43)104
(40)102
(39)94
(34)81
(27)72
(22)109
(43)
Mean maximum °F (°C)53.4
(11.9)57.9
(14.4)72.0
(22.2)81.5
(27.5)89.2
(31.8)93.9
(34.4)96.0
(35.6)94.2
(34.6)90.8
(32.7)82.8
(28.2)68.0
(20.0)57.5
(14.2)97.1
(36.2)
Average high °F (°C)32.8
(0.4)36.8
(2.7)47.9
(8.8)60.0
(15.6)71.5
(21.9)81.2
(27.3)85.2
(29.6)83.1
(28.4)76.5
(24.7)63.7
(17.6)49.6
(9.8)37.7
(3.2)60.5
(15.8)
Daily mean °F (°C)26.2
(−3.2)29.9
(−1.2)39.9
(4.4)50.9
(10.5)61.9
(16.6)71.9
(22.2)76.7
(24.8)75.0
(23.9)67.8
(19.9)55.3
(12.9)42.4
(5.8)31.5
(−0.3)52.4
(11.3)
Average low °F (°C)19.5
(−6.9)22.9
(−5.1)32.0
(0.0)41.7
(5.4)52.4
(11.3)62.7
(17.1)68.1
(20.1)66.9
(19.4)59.2
(15.1)46.8
(8.2)35.2
(1.8)25.3
(−3.7)44.4
(6.9)
Mean minimum °F (°C)−3
(−19)3.4
(−15.9)14.1
(−9.9)28.2
(−2.1)39.1
(3.9)49.3
(9.6)58.6
(14.8)57.6
(14.2)45.0
(7.2)31.8
(−0.1)19.7
(−6.8)5.3
(−14.8)−6.5
(−21.4)
Record low °F (°C)−25
(−32)−20
(−29)−7
(−22)10
(−12)28
(−2)35
(2)46
(8)43
(6)29
(−2)20
(−7)−3
(−19)−20
(−29)−25
(−32)
Average precipitation inches (mm)2.30
(58)2.12
(54)2.66
(68)4.15
(105)4.75
(121)4.53
(115)4.02
(102)4.10
(104)3.33
(85)3.86
(98)2.73
(69)2.33
(59)40.88
(1,038)
Average snowfall inches (cm)12.5
(32)10.1
(26)5.7
(14)1.0
(2.5)0.0
(0.0)0.0
(0.0)0.0
(0.0)0.0
(0.0)0.0
(0.0)0.1
(0.25)1.5
(3.8)7.9
(20)38.8
(99)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in)11.59.411.112.012.411.110.09.38.410.810.210.8127.0
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in)8.96.43.90.90.00.00.00.00.00.21.66.328.2
Average ultraviolet index1246799864215
Source 1: NOAA[140][133][136], WRCC[141]
Source 2: Weather Atlas (UV)[142]
Climate data for Chicago (OHare Intl Airport), 1991–2020 normals,[a] extremes 1871–present[b]
Sunshine data for Chicago
Time zone
As in the rest of the state of Illinois, Chicago forms part of the Central Time Zone. The border with the Eastern Time Zone is located a short distance to the east, used in Michigan and certain parts of Indiana.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Chicago
Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
18404,470—
185029,963570.3%
1860112,172274.4%
1870298,977166.5%
1880503,18568.3%
18901,099,850118.6%
19001,698,57554.4%
19102,185,28328.7%
19202,701,70523.6%
19303,376,43825.0%
19403,396,8080.6%
19503,620,9626.6%
19603,550,404−1.9%
19703,366,957−5.2%
19803,005,072−10.7%
19902,783,726−7.4%
20002,896,0164.0%
20102,695,598−6.9%
20202,746,3881.9%
2021 (est.)2,696,555−1.8%
United States Census Bureau[148]
2010–2020[7]
During its first hundred years, Chicago was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. When founded in 1833, fewer than 200 people had settled on what was then the American frontier. By the time of its first census, seven years later, the population had reached over 4,000. In the forty years from 1850 to 1890, the citys population grew from slightly under 30,000 to over 1 million. At the end of the 19th century, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world,[149] and the largest of the cities that did not exist at the dawn of the century. Within sixty years of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the population went from about 300,000 to over 3 million,[150] and reached its highest ever recorded population of 3.6 million for the 1950 census.
From the last two decades of the 19th century, Chicago was the destination of waves of immigrants from Ireland, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, including Italians, Jews, Russians, Poles, Greeks, Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Albanians, Romanians, Turkish, Croatians, Serbs, Bosnians, Montenegrins and Czechs.[151][152] To these ethnic groups, the basis of the citys industrial working class, were added an additional influx of African Americans from the American South—with Chicagos black population doubling between 1910 and 1920 and doubling again between 1920 and 1930.[151] Chicago has a significant Bosnian population, many of whom arrived in the 1990s and 2000s.[153]
In the 1920s and 1930s, the great majority of African Americans moving to Chicago settled in a so‑called "Black Belt" on the citys South Side.[151] A large number of blacks also settled on the West Side. By 1930, two-thirds of Chicagos black population lived in sections of the city which were 90% black in racial composition.[151] Chicagos South Side emerged as United States second-largest urban black concentration, following New Yorks Harlem. In 1990, Chicagos South Side and the adjoining south suburbs constituted the largest black majority region in the entire United States.[151]
Most of Chicagos foreign-born population were born in Mexico, Poland and India.[154]
Chicagos population declined in the latter half of the 20th century, from over 3.6 million in 1950 down to under 2.7 million by 2010. By the time of the official census count in 1990, it was overtaken by Los Angeles as the United States second largest city.[155]
The city has seen a rise in population for the 2000 census and after a decrease in 2010, it rose again for the 2020 census.[156]
According to U.S. census estimates as of July 2019, Chicagos largest racial or ethnic group is non-Hispanic White at 32.8% of the population, Blacks at 30.1% and the Hispanic population at 29.0% of the population.[157][158][159][160]
Racial composition2020[161]2010[162]1990[160]1970[160]1940[160]
White (non-Hispanic)31.4%31.7%37.9%59.0%[c]91.2%
Hispanic or Latino29.8%28.9%19.6%7.4%[c]0.5%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)28.7%32.3%39.1%32.7%8.2%
Asian (non-Hispanic)6.9%5.4%3.7%0.9%0.1%
Two or more races (non-Hispanic)
2.6%
1.3%
n/a
n/a
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