I grew up in the same era, graduating H.S. in 1963. As a child, on the West side of Chicago, my friends and I had free reign to roam the alleys and gangways for 3,4,5 blocks away from our homes. After dinner roamings of the neighborhood ended when the first street light came on. My parents and their friends were good, decent people. No divorce, no domestic violence, no debt. Everyone lived within their means and had a nice life. I remember in the late 50’s? when a child was kidnapped in Chicago and the whole city shut down and then mourned when she was found in a Forest Preserve. It was a one of a kind crime never to be committed again for many years.
What happened? What happened? 1960’s Blacks moved into my neighborhood. I saw two murders, one across the street from my house, gang related. White people fled to the suburbs for safety. We didn’t leave because of our Black neighbors, we left because of safety. Property devalued and eventually in a few short years a perfectly beautiful neighborhood turned into a slum. So what caused Black people to destroy a neighborhood and way of life? I don’t know...don’t have a clue...as this was before Johnson’s Great Society so you can’t blame it on the Plantation mentality. I don’t know...I just don’t know.