WBBM Channel 2 - News Special - "Decision at 83rd Street" (1962)
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
- Here's a documentary that aired over WBBM Channel 2, Decision on 83rd Street, written, produced and reported by Hugh Hill (later a political reporter for WBKB / WLS Channel 7). This special deals with the issue of the pending racial integration over the summer of J.E. Merrion's Marynook community on the South Side which consists of 423 homes, and the community of Chatham on "the other side of the tracks" (literally).
As this was derived from the original master tape (with film transfer), this is without commercials.
Includes:
Opening slate:
WBBM-TV
CBS · CHICAGO
Program - Decision on 83rd St [sic] (program was actually called Decision AT 83rd Street)
Ident No. 2 - PB 7/16/62
Record Date - 7/12/62
Length (Time)
Director - Bondellli
Take No. - A
Square on upper left corner, with ~390 Hz tone indicating countdown
Comments from white and black families, and a local politician, followed by Hugh outside Marynook setting up the premise of this documentary, and how this battle will ultimately affect all of Chicago.
Opening titles, and a look at Marynook itself; interviewed here are the Donald Johnsons of 8429 Kenwood; a professional realtor who lives at 8450 Kimball and is handling this "sales problem," as Hugh calls it; and one of the first Negro families at Marynook, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Huffman, at 8635 University; looks at Hirsch High School and Avalon Park Grammar School, with a meeting at the latter and comments by Jack Schwartz; how other Chicago communities are confronted with integration; another boundary in the Illinois Central tracks; residents of the Chatham community are interviewed including Mrs. Julia Stout who'd moved out of her home at 7920 Indiana in 1957 after 25 years, Rev. William D. Watkins of the Crerar Memorial Presbyterian Church; Lou Fitzgerald of 87th and Michigan; the Emery Byros (sp?); attempts to keep and attract businesses to the community; Marshall Forine (sp?) of M&M Hardware and his wife; newspaper photographer Tony Roden; Rev. Edsel Ammons of the Ingleside-Whitfield Methodist Church; a look at the integrated Chatham Lions Club; "Revolution in the City" author Vincent Giese; back to Marynook, with a look at St. Felicitas Church and interview with Msgr. James Walsh, before Hugh makes his closing comments.
Ending credits (with a meeting seen towards the end):
Decision at 83rd Street
Reporter - Hugh Hill
Cameraman - Irv Heberg
Sound - Mike Kesmar
Film Editor - Marv Sadkin
Technical Director - Robert Santchi
Audio - Bud Marcus
Associate Producer - Dick Goldberg
Written and Produced by Hugh Hill
Director - Phil Bondelli
This Was a WBBM-TV Film and Video Presentation
This aired on local Chicago TV on Monday, July 16th 1962 during the 10:15pm to 11:15pm timeframe. (Recorded on July 12th 1962.)
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Really enjoyed this piece, my parents bought a home in Marynook in 1963. When I graduated from 8th grade in 1967 many of the white kids families moved away. I recall that they didn't want to send their children to Hirsch, they changed the school boundaries so Marynook kids could go to Bowen, but still many left. Our next door neighbors were one of the few that didn't flee. They were the nicest people, I remember Mrs. Goren coming over with a pot of coffee to welcome our family. They stayed until the end of their lives. The home my parents bought remained in our family until about the last 5 years or so. For the most part, the properties remain well maintained. Some of the kids I grew up with ended up buying homes and raising their families in Marynook.
I visited Marynook last year and its still pretty much the same, a beautiful place to live and raise your family. My in laws lived there in the 60's.
Mrs. Goren is in Heaven today because of her UNSELFISHNESS, and willing to OPEN HER HEART and see beyond the color of one's skin.
This was soooo good and interesting ! Oh how I miss St Felicitas Parish! It was where I learned my faith!
Thank you for sharing!
Many of these Caucasian Families stayed as long as they could, but meanwhile some 22-25 miles south, new areas such as Olympia Fields, Flossmoor, Matteson/Richton Park were in a building boom at the time, and many of them went south. Young people LAUGH at me when I tell them I remember when South Holland and Dolton were mostly white, and a number of those folks went there also.
I know....I went to high school in Dolton (Class of 83)....most of my white classmates had originally come from neighborhoods like Marynook, Roseland, South Shore, etc. and moved during the white flight of those neighborhoods(I grew up in Auburn Gresham until the late 70s and we still had a few white families on the block) People are so surprised when I tell them that Riverdale, Dolton ,South Holland etc. were almost all white when I went to high school there....it's so different now.....
When they bulldozed caprini green and the Robert Taylor homes lots of them were relocated to those towns. Orland hills too.
WOW, I'm off of 84Th & Constance, and always wondered how Black Folk got all of those nice Houses in "Marry Nook & Pill Hill" back in the 70" when I as Kid.
Wow! I grew up in Marynook and parents still call it home, but more importantly to actually view this piece and learn the backstory on the gentrification process and how white folks didn't want to integrate due to their lack of knowledge thinking black folks equated to slum living conditions. Amazing to see how the entire Chatham community changed colors through the years! Great video post!
My grandparents bought their home in Chatham in 1958, before the Dan Ryan was built. I lived in Chatham for 21 years, and then I moved to Dolton. That was from 1988 til 2009. My mother 👩🏿 and father 👨🏿 both grew up there. My maternal grandparents lived on 84th and State street and my paternal grandparents lived on 76th and Eberhart. Most Chatham look the same as it did in the 50's
Wow!! This is a very interesting piece of Chicago history. I grew up in South Shore just north of Chatham, West Avalon and Marynook
They are taking back South Shore. A European Developer has purchased so much land in that area.
The director Phil Bondelli later moved to Hollywood and directed shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels and much more.
This was very informative, I'm still live in the area and the foundation of many buildings & homes are still intact & the property values hold their own, moreover I see a few whites sitting in their garages or walking their dogs that are still living in the area that didn't fear the change
I grew up on the East side..
112th st east
Excellent find. Very fascinating to watch this. Too often these things are censored which is nonsense. Freedom of speech must remain free in America
Wow, just took a Google Maps tour down that area and that man wasn't kidding. It is still dominated by hair and nail salons, and supply stores. Not many old school bars/saloons but a lot of empty dilapidated storefronts. Shame. Lots of shootings and crime today.
Well, Imagine that!!!! I would have never guessed!!
I grew up in the Chatham neighborhood in from the 60s thru 1980. Good area to grow up in, however found out thru my parents many homes where sold to black families with at a much higher price than what was on the market for those homes. ( real-estate brokers taking advantage of black foke
)
The interesting thing is that Park Forest and Park Forest South were planned communities, especially the latter. According to Channel 11's Geoffrey Baer on one his programs about the southern suburbs, Park Forest was pro racial integration back in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I don't know how well it was working because I recall Park Forest being mostly white in up throughout the 1980s and mid 1990s.
The plan for Park Forest South (now University Park) was for it to be racially integrated post the Civil Rights Movement. My parents moved us from near Woodlawn/Chatham to there in the mid-1970s. University Park remained roughly 50% black to 50% white until the early 1990s. By then the change was becoming more noticeable, and it was becoming majority black I don't think white flight led to the change in the racial composition of University Park. The first wave of black families had children who were either finishing high school or in college. Similarly a lot of the white families had children who were finishing high school or in college and likely the parents were empty nesters and wanted to downsize. I do recall, anecdotally, by the mid-80s whites were not moving into University Park at the same rate as blacks. In other words for every white family leaving, there were non replacing them. That is where the tipping point started and gradually it became majority black and the solid majority black, which is how it is today.
Circa 2010 I was amazed to see the entirety of the far southern suburbs had become overwhelmingly black, especially a place like Olympia Fields. I recall that back in the late 80s or early 90s Tom Brokaw who anchored the NBC Evening News did a program about the changing racial composition of the far southern suburbs. He mostly focused on Matteson. He basically said that University Park was a straight up ghetto because it had become almost entirely black, whereas Matteson was on its way to becoming a ghetto if the city/town could not convince white people to stay and/or move in. I was offended by how he portrayed University Park in his report. He spent all of 2:00 minutes in a one-hour program on it. He showed a closed White Hen store, but failed to show the newly opened convenience store just across the street.
Hugh Hill was born 53 years old.
No he wasn't go home and get your shine box... Is Hugh the father of Henry? :-)
St. Felicita's Is A Still A Beautiful Parish! :)
Fascinating to see how a local station covered this matter at that time when housing integration was just getting going.
This report looked deeply at the human factors of integration, but didn't touch on the economic powers behind segregating cities in the first place, which white populations (myself included) still don't grasp.
I was four then, didn't live in the Chicago area, but our family did visit good friends on the far north side of the city.
I hope he didn't tell him his recipe.
St. Felicitas across from the family home.
I enjoyed that they tried to give both sides of the story. Didn't try to demonize all white people.
My cousin's and I were chased through here by white teens as this was the fastest way to a store called Community discount from 83rd street. This is where I learned to run. I was 4 years old in 1962.
Hi Becky! Hey Karen. Yo quiero ?
You forgot to put "La" in front of it.
Just WOW!
why the sinister music?
I was thinking the same thing....
Fascjnating historical persoective.