tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31899615593767060412024-03-12T21:17:58.980-05:00the Contract Buyers LeagueThe Contract Buyers League was a collective of African American Chicago homeowners originating in North Lawndale on Chicago's West Side, who, in the late 1960s protested the exploitative sale of homes to blacks through contract selling.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-3617653998226971852016-02-24T11:05:00.001-06:002016-02-24T11:05:45.206-06:00Contract Selling, 2016Here is a recent article talking about the practice of contract selling rearing it's ugly head again in 2016. Buyers please beware of what you're getting into.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/business/dealbook/market-for-fixer-uppers-traps-low-income-buyers.html?refererAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-67498940439318315392015-07-22T08:48:00.002-05:002015-07-22T08:48:53.248-05:00Exhibit Opening - 7/16
The Contract Buyers League Exhibit
Clyde Ross, Jack Macnamara, and Jeff McCarter
North Lawndale Historical and Cultural Society Board President thanks all for attending.
"Family Properties" author Beryl Satter addresses the audience.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-49052475404048264932015-07-19T18:17:00.001-05:002015-07-19T18:17:51.629-05:00Ongoing ExhibitionFor those interested in viewing the Contract Buyers League exhibit, beginning on Tuesday, July 21, it will be at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, North Lawndale, 3555 W Ogden Ave. The exhibit is open to the public from 10am-4pm. Please feel free to come at any time, and tell your friends.
Thank you.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-46735974644031040442015-07-14T09:16:00.001-05:002015-07-14T09:16:41.818-05:00Exhibition Opening
The Contract Buyers League exhibition is opening this Thursday, July 16th! Please join us at the Homan Square Community Center from 5:00 - 8:00 pm. A small program will take place at approximately 6:30. Refreshments will be served.
And in case you cannot make on Thursday night, the exhibition will also be open this Saturday, July 18th, from 1:00 - 5:00 pm.&Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-87308672979433641872015-07-09T21:32:00.000-05:002015-07-10T20:16:26.164-05:00Contract Selling Diagrams
Some diagrams outlining the exploitative contract selling process that occurred. A preview of the upcoming exhibit, opening at the Homan Square Community Center next Thursday at 5pm.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-21589725141243581972015-01-19T18:08:00.000-06:002015-01-19T18:08:23.337-06:00Ongoing ExhibitThank you everyone who has taken some time to read this blog and for those that dig deeper into the history of the CBL, North Lawndale, and the themes of this blog. It's been awhile since I've posted here, but in the coming month I hope to do so a little more often. We are working to complete a small exhibit about the CBL to be displayed in North Lawndale. Information and progress of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-40289798936359818542014-08-11T16:10:00.001-05:002014-08-11T16:10:18.257-05:00Chicago Tonight - August 7, 2014Mr. Ross is featured on Chicago Tonight discussing the CBL's history in Chicago.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-34593616584795485742014-06-24T13:15:00.002-05:002014-06-24T13:15:27.753-05:00The Case for ReparationsThis article was the feature story of the June issue of the Atlantic Monthly by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It's been out for over a month, but just in case you missed it, it focuses on North Lawndale and Clyde Ross of the CBL.
The Case for ReparationsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-69098411276926628382013-09-18T11:43:00.000-05:002013-09-18T11:43:05.626-05:00The Chicago Freedom Movement and the CBLWith
the recent 50th anniversary for the March on Washington, I’d like to
post about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s relation to contract selling and
the Contract Buyers League. In 1966, King and the Southern Christian
Leadership Council (SCLC) brought their civil rights campaign north to
Chicago. With the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations
(CCCO), a local group led by AlAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-640333134109894132013-07-23T14:16:00.001-05:002013-07-23T14:17:04.352-05:00More CBL Homes Today!
(All photographs by John Wolf.)
I spent another afternoon recently going around part of the neighborhood to photograph CBL homes and talk to residents. There were some vacant lots, but the majority of the homes were beautiful and well-maintained. One woman that I spoke with was certain that her landlady was involved in the CBL, so she was going to talk to her bout all ofAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-44902641616373917982013-06-27T15:08:00.002-05:002013-07-23T14:18:40.231-05:00CBL Addresses, Today!Over the past several months of collecting information on the CBL, I have been compiling a roster of CBL members and addresses. Many of the addresses we found are from a photograph in the 1972 Atlantic Monthly article, some names were listed in court documents, but not their addresses, and a few more were taken from various newspaper articles written about individual members of the CBL.&Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-14193144122022490882013-06-11T09:48:00.000-05:002013-06-11T09:50:33.960-05:00Emergence of Exploitative Contract Selling, Part 4: The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977
The
Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 are
two key acts of federal legislation that were passed to combat various
discriminatory housing practices around the country.
The
Fair Housing Act of 1968, also known as Title VIII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1968, was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April
11, 1968, one week after the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-80493586141540371262013-05-13T15:42:00.001-05:002013-05-20T16:46:09.530-05:00Great Migration and Segregation
Black Population Change, North Lawndale outlined in red.
(Source: ProPublica, Housing Segregation: the Great Migration and Beyond by Jeff Larson and Nikole Hannah-Jones)
Isabel Wilkerson, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning The Warmth of Other Suns, described the Great Migration as "six million black Southerners [moving] out of the terror of Jim Crow to an uncertain existence in the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-65296755615773756822013-04-29T09:40:00.000-05:002013-04-29T09:50:53.723-05:00Blacks and Jews #2
This is the second of three clips taken from the documentary Blacks and Jews. This clip shows some of the protests and actions of the CBL. Mr. Clyde Ross talks about his view of the sellers. There is NBC news footage from 1969 explaining the terms faced by the contract buyers.
Blacks and Jews is a documentary that examines the relationships and conflicts betweenAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-87672778283673926602013-04-23T11:22:00.001-05:002013-04-23T11:22:59.368-05:00It is a Small World After All...<!--[if gte mso 9]>
<![endif]-->
My
name is Blaire Lewis, I am a first year doctoral student at the Adler School of
Professional Psychology for clinical psychology. This spring 2013 semester I am enrolled in
Community Psychology. In this course we
learn the principles, standards, and functions of community psychology such as
advocacy, social justice, and empowerment. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-80227397904864125202013-04-15T15:55:00.003-05:002013-04-15T15:56:31.632-05:00The Beginnings of the CBL
In
January 1966, Monsignor Jack Egan was assigned to Presentation Parish
in North Lawndale by the newly appointed Archbishop Cody. Egan was a
well-known priest in Chicago who worked tirelessly to maintain the
church’s presence in the inner city and assist the urban poor. Looking
back on his assignment to Presentation, he said “I’m living with black
people for the first time in Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-13643176764797696522013-04-08T09:58:00.002-05:002013-04-29T09:39:29.036-05:00Blacks and Jews #1
This is the first of three clips taken from the documentary Blacks and Jews. This clip introduces the racial transition of Lawndale from a Jewish to an African American neighborhood, and some effects associated with that transition. Martin Luther King, Jr. brought the southern Civil Rights campaign north to Chicago, and received support from white activists such as Monsignor Jack Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-74424503851825674762013-02-26T10:50:00.000-06:002013-02-28T11:42:07.709-06:00blockbustingnoun /ˈbläkˌbəstiNG/ The
practice of persuading owners to sell property cheaply because of the
fear of people of another race or class moving into the neighborhood,
and thus profiting by reselling at a higher price
Below is an excerpt describing blockbusting from The Story of the Contract Buyers League by James Alan McPherson, published n the Atlantic monthly in April 1972:
Between 1958 and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-78267121069743245162013-02-06T09:45:00.000-06:002013-02-06T09:53:55.479-06:00Photos from the Lawndale Conversations Series: the Contract Buyers League
The audience listens to Professor Satter.
Jack Macnamara and Clyde Ross tell of the accomplishments of the CBL.
Jack Macnamara, Clyde Ross, Beryl Satter, and Charles Leeks (L-R)
The discussion with Mr. Ross continues.
NLHCS, NHS, Jane Addams Hull House Museum, and JCUA would like to thank all those who attended. We received great feedback in our post event survey. It was Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-9164016477342617702013-01-16T12:38:00.003-06:002013-01-16T15:21:58.796-06:00Lawndale Conversations Series: The Contract Buyers League
Thursday, January 31, 2013, 6pm
A panel discussion with Beryl Satter, author of "Family Properties" and History professor at Rutgers University, Clyde Ross, North Lawndale resident and former CBL co-chairman, and Jack Macnamara, community actvist and CBL organizer, discussing the efforts and legacy of the Contract Buyers League, a collective of black Chicago homeowners which originated in Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-88561701218324249742013-01-15T14:23:00.000-06:002013-06-11T09:51:31.845-05:00Emergence of Exploitative Contract Selling, Part 3: The Federal Housing AdministrationThe
FHA was created in 1934 with the main objective of stabilizing the home
mortgage industry after the Great Depression. Subsequently,
homeownership in America was encouraged by the availability of homes
with low down payments and low interest rates through federally insured
mortgages. However, the framework for the “American Dream”, set forth
by the newly created FHA, did not Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-76645251995209591552013-01-15T13:00:00.000-06:002013-01-28T10:39:10.842-06:00Recommended ReadingsFamily Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America
By Beryl Satter
"In My Father's House There Are Many Mansions - And I'm Going To Get Me Some Of Them Too" The Story of the Contract Buyers League
By James Alan McPherson
The Atlantic Monthly, April 1972
An Alley in Chicago: The Life and Legacy of Monsignor Jack Egan
By Margery Frisbie
Chapter 18: "Very close to anAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-52168822590374882392013-01-02T13:59:00.001-06:002013-06-11T09:52:57.472-05:00Emergence of Exploitative Contract Selling, Part 2: Restrictive Covenants and Real Estate Boards
(image source)
Restrictive
covenants for neighborhoods have been around for a long time in this
country, and in fact, still exist today. They are essentially rules put
in place that are tied to the deed or title of a property so that a
level of coherency within a neighborhood, subdivision, or street can be
maintained. The premise being that this approach preserves or Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-30600833707831265502012-12-19T11:49:00.000-06:002013-01-04T10:23:06.158-06:003555 W Ogden Avenue: Paint City to NHS
NHS North Lawndale Offices, 3555 W Ogden Ave., photo taken Dec. 19, 2012
Several
weeks ago, a client came to NHS whose mother was known as an activist
in Lawndale. We asked her questions about the Contract Buyers League
and if she had any memories of how her parents bought their home. When
asked for proof of ownership for possible repair work on her home, the
client Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3189961559376706041.post-40687829517870878392012-12-18T10:23:00.000-06:002013-06-11T09:53:37.878-05:00Emergence of Exploitative Contract Selling, Part 1: An Introduction
If
buying a house on contract was inherently disadvantageous to
prospective home buyers, why was this method of home purchase so
prevalent in North Lawndale in the 1950s and 60s?It
wasn’t merely a matter of choice for the buyers. For the vast majority
of African Americans looking to buy a home in Chicago in the 1950s and
60s, obtaining a home mortgage was next to impossible. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17745906401679592155noreply@blogger.com1