Housing -- Illinois -- Chicago

This small collection consists of case studies, legal documents, reports, pamphlets and booklets connected to Susan B. Rosenblum’s work in Chicago in the 1980s. Items in the collection relate to three distinct areas of focus: displacement in the Uptown neighborhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the 1984 closing of the Playskool toy factory in West Humboldt Park and the creation of the non-profit Chicago Consortium of Worker Education in 1989.

The Uptown Chicago Commission was incorporated in 1955 by community members who worked together to foster community improvement. The collection includes meeting agendas, flyers, membership lists, minutes, newsletters, publications and reports.

When Harold Washington took office in 1983 he formed five sub-cabinets that were responsible for the coordination, development and implementation of policies that cut across departmental boundaries. Major topics in the collection include the renovation of the Chicago and Regal Theaters, the Chinatown Basin Project and the North Loop Development Project. Documents include reports, memoranda, correspondence and minutes.

Correspondence, speeches, press releases and reports from Washington’s tenure as Congressman for the First District and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Of note are his legislative files and those from his committee and caucus work.