In the 1960s, the Chicago neighborhood of South Lawndale—also known as Little Village—was one of the country’s most extreme examples of white flight. Pro-suburban policies, racism, and deindustrialization drove white residents out of the city center. As factories closed or reduced operations, purchasing power declined, the housing stock wore out, and community life broke down.
Veteran real estate developer Richard Dolejs tells author A.K. Sandoval-Strausz that in the early 1960s he was trying to convince his colleagues to bring the Mexican community into the neighborhood, but the numbers weren’t large enough to make a difference.
