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Byron Dickens, National Public Housing Museum, interview

Byron Dickens shares his story of growing up in Chicago during the 1960s:

Well I mean by I mean you know where like I said when my Mama was growing up down south, you know ‘yes sir’ ‘yes ma'am’ you don't look a white person in the eyes. Then when that thing happened with my grandfather, with Emmett Till, they kind of put fear for your family, it was like something can happen to your child, nothing can be done about it. So she was very fearful of don't stay out too late, be careful, don’t go down Taylor Street, be careful. We felt that, so at that time, if you called me black, I got offended you know what you mean,  it was a negro or colored person growing up. So if we walked, sometime we would go, we were kind of trapped, Maxwell Street  ‘Jew town’ if we early we’d go down Taylor Street, we wouldn't go down Taylor at night going east towards East of Racine. We would go to Racine and hit Roosevelt, then we’d have to be careful of going through the buildings in cuz we weren’t from there, so a lot of the stuff we had to do in the daytime. Whether it was on Taylor Street or in the building. So there was definitely some tension.  

Recorded by Francesco De Salvatore on July 3, 2018. Audio courtesy of the National Public Housing Museum, Chicago. 

In Focus: The Chicago Freedom Movement & the Fight for Fair Housing exhibition tour
  1. Chapter 1: Chicago in the 1950s/1960s
  2. Jennetta Pegues, National Public Housing Museum, interview
  3. Byron Dickens, National Public Housing Museum, interview
  4. Chapter 2: White Flight
  5. Dorothy Tucker, HistoryMaker interview
  6. Chapter 3: Preventative Practices
  7. Art Minson, HistoryMaker Interview
  8. Chapter 4: Welcome to Elmhurst
  9. Chapter 5: Selma, The Turning Point
  10. Chapter 6: Focusing on the North
  11. Chapter 7: Grant Park to City Hall
  12. Chapter 8: Soldier Field
  13. Chapter 9: Summer of '66 Marches
  14. Chapter 10: Marquette Park
  15. Reverend Evan Clay, HistoryMakers interview
  16. Chapter 11: Remember Why You're Here, Brother
  17. Chapter 12: Escalation and Agreement
  18. Chapter 13: Federal and Local Fair Housing Laws
  19. Chapter 14: Depth of Field, Teens Project
  20. Chapter 15: The Movement is Not Over