(This piece follows my post, “My Day at the Fair”.)

As the Chicago World’s Fair ended and its “White City” faded into history the Midway Plaisance remained, even as it does today, to stand as the dividing line between two Chicago neighborhoods; Hyde Park on the north and Woodlawn on the south. From the end of the fair in 1893 until the early 1950’s these communities developed on nearly identical cultural patterns. The real wealth generated by the fair and the development of the University of Chicago afforded both neighborhoods a higher standard of living than could be found in almost any other community in the city. Indeed a certain gentility, refinement and liberal attitude was unmistakably reflected in the elite and intellectual mélange of the populace there.

At the end of WW II America began its awakening to the unfair treatment of its black war veterans and of all black citizens in general. In 1948 congress passed various fair housing laws in order to relieve the pressure from inner-city cramming of black humanity into impoverished areas due to the practice of racial discrimination. Hyde Park and Woodlawn immediately began to feel the effects of these new laws. Blacks began to move into these neighborhoods in huge numbers and both communities began a visible process of deterioration. Before the 1960’s it was clear that some action had to be taken and at that point the path to the future became radically different for the north and south sides of the Midway Plaisance.

Some of the effects of developmental divergence at the old fair grounds were noticeable even before the great black migration of the 50’s. Hyde Park was assuming a more presumptive – snobbish if you like – attitude in its elitism. Part of it was due to its closer proximity to the university I suppose but a more driving force was at work in the subsurface of that neighborhood’s society of movers and shakers. That force was Communism.

On August 30, 1919 a convention of American Communists was held in Chicago. Immediately, differences in policy split the convention into two factions and an additional, separate convention was convened. The original group continued its convention and formed “The American Labor Party” while on Sept. 1, 1919 the dissenters formed their own party called “The Communist Party of America”. Finally Lenin himself stepped in and demanded that all American communist factions reconcile their differences and unite. That was accomplished with the formation of the CPUSA; the Communist Party of the USA, in May of 1921. Out of this wrangling communism found a home in Chicago and its heart in Hyde Park.

From the 20’s to the 50’s communist influences in Hyde Park had no visible effect on the landscape and life continued pleasantly enough and without distinctions in the two white communities. It was not until after the influx of black people had reached tsunami proportions that the distinctions presented themselves as a visible pox on the land. The disease presented itself as classism.

Woodlawn was hit the hardest and although its citizens thought of themselves as tolerant and many of them hoped to live in harmony with their new neighbors it soon became clear even to the most idealistic among them that it was not going to be possible. Whites began to flee in droves and the vacuum created by them was immediately filled by black families. In less than a decade the turnover was complete. The once peaceful neighborhood had become the home of the Black Peace Stone Nation, the El Rukins and countless other small but equally violent and lawless gangs. According to the 1990 census Woodlawn was virtually 100% black with an average income of less than $14,000 per year and more than 50% of its people on public aid. If you want to know what America will look like when it becomes fully Socialist/Communist you only have to visit Woodlawn where most of its people live on “redistributed wealth”.

Hyde Park, on the other hand, wrote a different history altogether. It faced the same trauma that hit Woodlawn in the 50’s but it responded with forceful action. The problem was understood immediately by the class conscious elitists, especially the socialist/communists among them. If blacks could afford to live in their midst nothing could stop them from coming. It was the law. The solution was obvious; destroy any property that a black might be able to afford and build something “beyond their means”. So that’s what they did. If you want to see what one of the prettiest urban communities in America looks like you only have to visit Hyde Park and see what Capitalist elitism can do.

And so the hypocrisy of Socialism and its elitist intellectual supporters is exposed. You see in Hyde Park blacks are not unwelcome, not in the least. They are not merely embraced they are honored – practically worshipped – so long as they are civilized, socialized and can afford a decent home. You see it isn’t racism that holds blacks back in America, it is classism. And the truth is that after the American Communist Party has done all in its power to bring equality to black people the equality they end up with is poverty and always will be so as long as socialist policies cripple any desire among blacks to wean themselves from the government teat.

Look closely at this picture. Find Waldo. Find Barack.