Contents
- Descriptive Summary
- Restriction(s)
- Terms governing use
- Provenance statement
- Please cite this collection as
- Collection Summary
- Biographical/historical note
- Related Material
- Separated Material
- Indexed Terms
- Organization and Arrangement of Collection
- Series 1. Events and Workshops , ca. 1967-1982 (items found in 2 boxes)
- Series 2. Publicity Materials, ca. 1967-1982, bulk 1972-1975 (items found in 3 boxes)
- Series 3. Board and Staff Portraits, 1967-1982 (items found in 2 boxes)
- Series 4. Built Environment, 1967-1982 (items found in 2 boxes)
- Series 5. Negatives 1967-1975, bulk 1967-1968 (items found in 1 box)
- Detailed list of contents of the collection
Collection Access
Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities collection of visual materials
Descriptive Summary
- Repository
-
Chicago History Museum
Research Center1601 North Clark StreetChicago, IL 60614-6038
- Creator
- Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities (Chicago, Ill.)
- Bib number
- 00222959
- Title
- Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities collection of visual materials
- Dates
- 1967-1982
- Predominant Dates
- 1967-1975
- Quantity
- 1.4 linear feet, including approximately 1760 images (3 boxes)
- Call number
- 1992.0212 PPL
- Call number
- 1992.0212 PCT-0256
- Call number
- 1992.0212 PPN-0403
Restriction(s)
Advance appointment required to view material from cool and cold storage.
Terms governing use
Credit photographer, some restrictions may apply.
Provenance statement
Gift of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities (accession #: 1978.0043, 1982.0003, 1984.0172, 1985.0033, 1992.0212).
Please cite this collection as
Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities collection of visual materials (Chicago History Museum), with a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of the specific item(s).
Collection Summary
Black-and-white photographic negatives (approximately 1059), photographic prints (383) and contact sheets (76); color transparencies (238) and photographic prints (4) depicting the activities of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities (LCMOC) and affiliated organizations, including the Housing Investments Fund (HIF), the Regional Housing Coalition, and the South Shore Scene newspaper. The majority of the images depict events, workshops, and publicity materials of the organizations in support of their respective missions to increase housing access and end housing discrimination in Chicago and surrounding suburbs during the late 1960s and 1970s. Photographic prints, ads, and news releases used to create the South Shore Scene in 1972 and 1973 are also included. Other images in the collection depict staff and board members from LCMOC and HIF, as well as the built environment in Chicago and the suburbs, including images of housing and models of homes.
Biographical/historical note
The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities (LCMOC), one of the first open-housing organizations in the U.S., was founded on December 6, 1966, following a number of open-housing actions by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and others involved in the Chicago Freedom Movement. Following a summit held by the Chicago Conference on Religion and Race that brought together government (federal, state, and local), religious, labor, civil rights, and business leaders, the not-for-profit LCMOC was established to tackle the challenges of housing discrimination in the Chicago metropolitan area. The original board and staff leadership included: James W. Cook, president; James W. Montgomery, vice president; Al Raby, vice president; David Kennedy, Treasurer; Paul M. Lund, Secretary; and Edward L. Holmgren, Executive Director. Kale Williams succeeded Holmgren as Executive Director in 1972.
LCMOC used a variety of tactics to achieve its goals, including holding educational conferences, presentations, and workshops, advertising campaigns, lawsuits on behalf of individuals facing discrimination, and developing advocacy partnerships with other agencies and groups working in the field. In 1972, the LCMOC, Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation, and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission organized the Metropolitan Housing Coalition (renamed the Regional Housing Coalition in 1973) to work with suburban officials to achieve a planned, balanced dispersal of subsidized housing throughout the Chicago region; the presentation slides in this collection result from this partnership. LCMOC also worked extensively with an affiliated organization, Home Investments Fund (HIF), which provided loans and other home-buying assistance to low- and moderate-income individuals to encourage housing integration in the city and suburbs; the two entities merged in 1976.
LCMOC's programs served as a guide for national housing policy; in 1991, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to replicate it in five metropolitan areas. In its 40-year lifetime, the LCMOC assisted 10,000 families and trained 30,000 individuals in fair housing issues and advocacy. The organization ceased operations on June 2, 2006.
Separated Material
Visual materials in this collection were transferred from the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities records, part 1.
Indexed Terms
- Brown, James--1933-2006
- Cody, John Patrick
- Gautreaux, Dorothy
- Holmgren, Edward
- Lee, Brenda--1944-
- Kerner, Otto--1908-1976
- Walker, Daniel--1922-2015
- Williams, Kale
- Discrimination in housing--Illinois--Chicago Metropolitan Area
- Housing--Illinois--Chicago Metropolitan Area--1950-1989
- Minorities--Housing--Illinois--Chicago Metropolitan Area--1950-1989
- Chicago Metropolitan Area (Ill.)--Race relations--1950-1989
- Advertisements
- Contact sheets--Black and white
- Film negatives--Black and white
- Film transparencies--Color
- Photomechanical prints
- Photographic prints--Black and white
- Photographic prints--Color
- Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities
- Home Investments Fund
- Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission
- Regional Housing Coalition
- Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation
- South Shore Scene
Organization and Arrangement of Collection
The collection is arranged in five series.
Series 1. Events and Workshops , ca. 1967-1982 (items found in 2 boxes)
Black-and-white photographic prints (85) and contact sheets (26) and color transparencies (238) depicting events held by the LCMOC and related organizations, particularly HIF. The series includes images from LCMOC and HIF conferences, including the Community Conference convened by LCMOC and Illinois Governor Otto Kerner on February 17, 1967 at Elmhurst College, as well as and the North Suburban Conference, ca. 1967-1968. Other events in the series include the HIF 5th Anniversary party in 1973, an event featuring Coretta Scott King as a speaker that may have been sponsored by Peoples Gas and Coke Co., and a number of unlabeled events and workshops hosted by LCMOC and HIF. The series also includes slides created for completed and in-progress presentations given by the Regional Housing Coalition between 1972 and 1979. Most of the contact sheets in this series correspond to the 35mm negatives (Series 5), with the exception of the North Suburban Conference images.
Series 2. Publicity Materials, ca. 1967-1982, bulk 1972-1975 (items found in 3 boxes)
Black-and-white (237) and color (2) photographic prints, black-and-white contact sheets (33) and negatives (7) created to promote and advertise the work of LCMOC and related organizations, particularly HIF and the South Shore Scene newspaper. Many images promote the activities of HIF, particularly their work to encourage African-American families to move to the suburbs; most of the images are of African-American families playing in suburban yards, posing on porches and in driveways, and of children walking to school or reading (ca. early 1970s), as well as advertisements made using these images. The HIF-related materials also include images (prints and the negatives in this series) of a sound truck used in June 1974 to promote HIF loans and encourage African-Americans to consider the suburbs. The bulk of the rest of this series consists of materials gathered for production of the South Shore Scene between 1972 and 1973, including portraits and other images for stories, advertisements, promotional portraits and press release information for celebrity acts coming to the area (including James Brown and Brenda Lee). This series also includes a Chicago Tribune print of the 1976 Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Marquette Park March that is marked as being used for LCMOC public relations. A number of the contact sheets in this series are represented in the 35mm negatives (Series 5). Graphic materials present include bumper stickers and a poster related to housing equality.
Series 3. Board and Staff Portraits, 1967-1982 (items found in 2 boxes)
This series consists of black-and-white photographic prints (42), contact sheets (17) and negatives (2) depicting board members and staff of LCMOC and affiliated organizations, especially HIF. Many images have identifying information and include LCMOC executive directors, Edward Holmgren and Kale Williams, Cardinal John Cody, Vernon E. Jordan, and Illinois Governor Dan Walker (1973-1977), among many others.
Series 4. Built Environment, 1967-1982 (items found in 2 boxes)
This series consists of black-and-white (19) photographic prints and contact sheets (6) and color photographic prints (2) depicting the built environment in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, including images of downtown Chicago and Chicago Housing Authority public housing developments, images of housing in Chicago and suburbs, and models of housing developments.
Series 5. Negatives 1967-1975, bulk 1967-1968 (items found in 1 box)
Black-and-white 35mm negatives (approximately 1050), arranged by roll number, most of which correspond to images on contact sheets found in Series 1, 2, and 3. To identify negatives, look at corresponding film roll numbers written on the reverse side of most contact sheets. Negatives include: 32 sleeves from 1967-1968, numbered between 77143 and 129644; one sleeve from 1973, numbered 359118; two sleeves from 1975, numbered 59858 and 58859.
Detailed list of contents of the collection
- Dates
- 1967-1982
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPL
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic prints, contact sheets, and graphic materials
- Dates
- 1970s
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PCT-0256
- Size
- Color transparencies and photographic prints
Advance appointment required to view material from cold storage.
- Dates
- 1967-1982
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPL
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic prints, contact sheets, and graphic materials
- Dates
- 1970s
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PCT-0256
- Size
- Color transparencies and photographic prints
Advance appointment required to view material from cold storage.
- Dates
- 1967-1975
- Predominant Dates
- 1967-1968
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPN-0403
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic negatives
- Dates
- 1967-1982
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPL
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic prints, contact sheets, and graphic materials
- Dates
- 1967-1975
- Predominant Dates
- 1967-1968
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPN-0403
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic negatives
- Dates
- 1967-1982
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPL
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic prints, contact sheets, and graphic materials
- Dates
- 1970s
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PCT-0256
- Size
- Color transparencies and photographic prints
Advance appointment required to view material from cold storage.
- Dates
- 1967-1975
- Predominant Dates
- 1967-1968
- Physical Location
- 1992.0212 PPN-0403
- Size
- Black-and-white photographic negatives