Imagination creates places. In 1865, Henry Austin’s imagination created a place called Austinville. Later shortened to Austin, as it’s known today, Henry Austin’s community sprung from visions of broad streets, tall trees, welcoming neighbors, and a shared respect for the principles of temperance.
By the mid-1870s, nearly 1,000 people had decided to partake in Henry Austin’s vision. As the nineteenth century pushed forward, this number continued to rise, thanks in part to its proximity to the first stop on the Chicago and Galena Railroad. By the late 1890s, Austin was the largest community in Cicero Township — an impressive realization of Henry Austin’s vision, perhaps, but not so impressive to residents in other corners of the township. These residents voted Austin out of Cicero Township in 1899, when it officially became part of the city of Chicago.
Affordable homes, industrial growth, convenient commuting options, and all-American features — a bustling commercial district (Chicago Avenue and Madison and Lake streets), trolley cars, impressive churches — kept Austin among Chicago’s more popular neighborhoods well into the twentieth century. Oak Park, the affluent community to Austin’s west that’s the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway and the one-time building grounds of Frank Lloyd Wright, brought additional cachet to the community. By 1930, approximately 130,000 people called Austin home.
Through the middle of the century, Austin’s population was overwhelmingly white, consisting largely of people with roots in Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In fact, the 1960 census marked the community’s population at 99.83% white. This would soon change.
Chicago, like much of the nation, saw racial tensions escalate in the 1950s and 1960s. Police brutality, economic disparity, and a history of mistreatment combined to fuel the African American and Hispanic uprisings in Chicago in 1965 and 1966. Two years later, after Martin Luther King, Jr., was slain on a balcony at a Memphis motel, the racial tensions erupted into full-blown riots. Rampant looting and arson occurred, resulting in the dispatch of emergency crews consisting of more than 10,000 police officers, 6,500 national guardsmen, and 5,000 troops.
When the rioting ended, the neighborhoods on Chicago’s west side — where the devastation was largely concentrated — were left to contend with some staggering numbers. In just two days, $10 million in damage had occurred. Upwards of 500 people were injured, including 11 dead. More than 200 buildings were battered. Nearly 125 fires had been set. And many neighborhoods — Austin among them — saw rapid “white flight,” as long-time residents, frightened and unnerved, sought new places to call home.
Commerce and industry did not return to Austin — not in any significant sense, at least. And the residents who moved in to claim the forgotten buildings and homes were largely economically disadvantaged members of racial minorities. Today’s Austin is nearly 90% black, with 5% white and 4% Hispanic populations. The median family income is just below $34,000.
While the demographics of the neighborhood have shifted over time, one constant has been the core of community members who, like Henry Austin, have visions of an Austin that is ever-improving. In the 1970s, groups like the Organization for a Better Austin worked to improve poor schools and declining living conditions. In the decades following, small business owners have cautiously begun bringing new ventures to the once bustling commercial districts. And organizations like the Catalyst Schools have started substantial efforts to provide educational stability to the neighborhood’s residents.
Nearly 120,000 people live in Austin today, making it Chicago’s most populous neighborhood. As education provides its residents with a renewed sense of economic viability, the neighborhood’s imagination is stirring. Austin is on the path to restoring its former glories and forging a unique future — one built on a legacy of dreaming, creating, and believing that a better day is always waiting just ahead.
