There Goes The Neighborhood

Blog post number two. There Goes The Neighborhood. I feel like my last entry was very cold and proper, maybe because I was unaware what my English teacher was expecting, maybe because my mother forced me to.

There goes the neighborhood. A mass exodus. A flight of one by the entry of another. There has been many instances of this in the past, however, near the community where I live, that wasn't the case.

Many years ago, during the 1960's, there was segregation in the United States. Neighborhoods were either black or white. When one race would enter the neighborhood - if the had the courage to - that would leave to the flight of the other. Even is Chicago, segregation was present. Many neighborhoods followed this same pattern, but one, on the Southwest side, did not.

The Beverley Hills neighborhood, acted in the exact opposite way of the other neighborhoods during that time. A once predominately white area, is now one of the most diverse communities in the city because of the actions during the 1960's. When African Americans moved into the neighborhood, the white people did not flee. There was no relocation, no exodus. The two races managed to live together peacefully and with out flaw. Surprise? Don't think so.

Today we know that diversity is good and necessary for survival, but then, it was brand new. Black and White weren't meant to mix, as seen before in previous neighborhoods. Beverly was a big hop, skip and a jump towards civil rights and it effected everyone. The fact that there wasn't a "There Goes The Neighborhood," effect was a big deal that lead towards civil rights which changed the world.