North Shore Summer Project collection

Biography/Profile

The North Shore Summer Project was an attempt by a volunteer citizens' organization, associated with the American Friends Service Committee, to expose discriminatory real estate practices in suburban communities of Chicago, Illinois. Because many residents of the north shore had supported the civil rights movement in the South, the committee believed the communities would be receptive to the implementation of open housing in private transactions. The project included a survey to determine attitudes of realtors and residents, a campaign to promote non-discriminatory property listings. Student volunteers contacted over 600 home sellers and over 1,500 other residents during the period June - August, 1965. Seventy-five realtors had been interviewed the previous February. Organization headquarters, called Freedom Centers, were set up in each participating suburb from which literature and petitions were widely distributed. A silent vigil of protest was maintained around the offices of certain realtors. Dr. Martin Luther King addressed 10,000 people on the Winnetka Village Green on July 25.

The results of the interviews indicated that a majority of both residents and homesellers in the north shore preferred non-discriminatory real estate listings. Despite these conclusions only limited progress made in changing customary realty practices. Two continuing programs - FREE (For Real Estate Equality) and a Buyer Recruitment program - were established with the NSSP funds remaining at the conclusion of the summer.