Examining Segregation 50 Years After the Fair Housing Act

Dominican University, in partnership with Oak Park’s “Fair Housing at 50” Steering Committee, presents WBEZ reporter and author Natalie Moore in the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Lecture on Tuesday, January 22. The lecture, entitled “Examining Segregation 50 Years After the Fair Housing Act,” will be held at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center, 7900 W. Division Street.

Moore’s talk is being presented as part of “MLK and Human Rights: An Unfinished Journey,” the university’s semester-long commemoration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, and in conjunction with the community-wide celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Oak Park’s Fair Housing Ordinance. Considered the last achievement of the Civil Rights era, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 is considered the last achievement of the Civil Rights era and was a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Moore has covered segregation and inequality in Chicago for WBEZ since 2007. Her book, South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, received Chicago Review of Books’ 2016 Award for Nonfiction and a Buzzfeed Best Nonfiction Book of 2016. She received the 2017 Chicago Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award and was the recipient of the 2010 Studs Terkel Community Media Award for reporting on Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. The Chicago Reader named her the best journalist of 2017.

A panel discussion will follow Moore’s talk. Included in the panel are Prexy Nesbitt, labor organizer, social activist and educator; Maria Krysan, author of Cycle of Segregation: Social Processes and Residential Stratification and chair of the sociology department at University of Illinois-Chicago; and Frank Lipo, executive director of The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest. The panel will be moderated by Clinton Nichols, assistant professor of sociology and criminology at Dominican University.

Nesbitt, a renowned activist in liberation movements in the U.S. and Africa, will share his experiences with Dr. King and his involvement in the Chicago Freedom Movement. Lipo will provide a historical context for Oak Park’s Fair Housing Ordinance and Krysan, a member of the board of Oak Park Regional Housing Center, will discuss what the Center is doing to maintain and advance Oak Park’s racial and economic diversity.

This free program is co-sponsored by Oak Park’s “Fair Housing at 50” steering committee,” which includes representatives of Oak Park Regional Housing Center, Oak Park River Forest Museum, Oak Park Area Association of Realtors, Oak Park Public Library, Oak Park Residence Corporation, Oak Park Art League, Oak Park Community Relations Commission and Department, Oak Park Village Clerk's Office, Concordia University and Dominican University.

For more information, contact Jessica Mackinnon, director of public information at Dominican University, at jmack@dom.edu or (708) 524-6289.