Harvey Clark

 A name not well known in Black History is that of Harvey E. Clark Jr.
Harvey E. Clark Jr., a man whose move to Cicero, formerly a predominately White suburban city west of Chicago, sparked racial riots in 1951,  died at his home in Swannanoa, NC, at age 75 in 1998.

In 1951, Clark a veteran, who was then a bus driver, moved his family into an apartment building in Cicero to show them a better life than on Chicago's South Side where they lived.
What he found waiting for him was a neighor filled with racial hatred and not ready for change.

In 1951,  Harvey E. Clark Jr. a veteran, who was then a bus driver, moved his family into an apartment building in Cicero to show them a better life than on Chicago's South Side where they lived.
When the family moved in, youths broke into the apartment and destroyed Clark's possessions while others damaged the building. A mob of about 3,000 gathered and a riot broke out until450 National Guardmen and and about two hundred Cicero and Cook County cmae and brought back order.
Later, theNAACP annonced they brought the building and it would be home to both black and white veterans.
Little is known (at least) to me of what began of of Mr. Clark.
But I admire his spirit and courage, for wanting a better life for himself and his family, having to fight to have the right to live where he choses, but his actions was the beginning of change for Chicago's South Side.