On 7 January 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) announced plans for the Chicago Freedom Movement, a campaign that marked the expansion of the civil rights movement from the South to northern cities, where thousands of African Americans confronted economic exploitation in urban slums. King believed that the application of nonviolent direct action tactics in Chicago “could arouse the conscience of this nation to deal realistically with the northern ghetto.”
Groundwork for the Chicago campaign began in July 1965 when King, at the invitation of local civil rights groups, traveled to Chicago to lead a march and rally in which he called for an end to de facto segregation in education, housing, and employment. Convinced that the segregation of African Americans into urban ghettos was a key factor in the North’s race problems, King and the SCLC decided to focus on ending Chicago’s housing discrimination and rehabilitating existing neighborhoods. In addition, they sought to target racist hiring practices through a program called Operation Breadbasket .
The city of Chicago was selected for several reasons. King had become familiar with the city during fundraising visits and developed relationships with the clergy, union leaders, and civil rights groups. In addition, Chicago's Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO) had already organized mass non-violent protests in the city and they were ready to engage in further action. Another factor was the power of Chicago's mayor, Richard Daley. Unlike other major cities where councils limited the power of the mayor, Chicago had a distinct power center that could be targeted. When announcing the campaign, King said, “If we can break the backbone of discrimination in Chicago, we can do it in all the cities in the country.”
Soon after the campaign’s kick-off rally at Soldiers Field on 10 July 1966, race riots erupted on Chicago’s West Side. During a march through an all-white neighborhood on 5 August, demonstrators were met with racially fueled hostility. King, who had temporarily moved to Chicago with his family, was struck by a rock during the protest. He recalled, “Bottles and bricks were thrown at us; we were often beaten. I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I had never seen, even in Mississippi, mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as in Chicago.”
Throughout the summer, King faced the organizational challenge of mobilizing Chicago’s diverse African American community as well as the mounting resistance of working-class whites who feared the impact of open housing on their neighborhoods. King observed that “many whites who opposed open housing would deny they were racist. They turn to sociological arguments without realizing that criminal responses are environmental, not racial.”
By late August, Mayor Daley was ready to end the demonstrations and bring peace to his city. After negotiating with King and various housing boards, he announced a “Summit Agreement” in which the Chicago Housing Authority promised to build “non-ghetto low-rise” public housing and the Mortgage Bankers Association agreed to make mortgages available, regardless of race. While King called the agreement “one of the most important programs ever conceived to make open housing a reality,” he recognized that it was “the first step in a thousand-mile journey.”