Hyde Park (1920)

A crowed of white profiteers in the Hyde Park division of the city of Chicago publish a Property Owners’ Journal and are moving heaven and earth to get Negroes voluntarily to segregate themselves. They have even had the impudence to quote The Crisis in their own defense, when we asserted “the right of any individual of any race or color to choose his own marital mate, his own friend, and his own dinner companion,—in fine, to be the master of his home.” What these real estate agents want is not only to be masters of their own homes, but also of ours. They may buy property where they please, but we must not buy where we please. They claim the right not only to occupy their own houses, but to determine who shall live next door. We hope that the Chicago Negroes will buy just as much property in Hyde Park as they can pay for, and proceed to live therein.

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Citation: Du Bois, W.E.B. 1920. “Hyde Park.” The Crisis. 19(6):298.