As part of our coverage on housing in Bronzeville, Lionel Kimble Jr. discusses what happens when Black people are priced out of Black neighborhoods.
by Reema Saleh
Lionel Kimble Jr. is an author, Chicago State University history professor and Bronzeville resident. (Photo 1: Courtesy of Lionel Kimble Jr. Photo 2: @vxla/Flickr)
As a historian, Lionel Kimble Jr. has made it his life's mission to tell stories about Chicago.
"I look at the Black Metropolis as this mecca for Black people, culture and history," said Kimble, a history professor at Chicago State University who lives in the Bronzeville neighborhood. "What happens when Bronzeville becomes less and less bronze — when Black people may not be the majority of this neighborhood anymore?"
In 2015, he published "A New Deal for Bronzeville," chronicling the Civil Rights activism and labor organizing that emerged as African Americans migrated from the South to Chicago. He also directs research and policy at the Chicago Urban League, which has worked toward equity for Black families and communities since 1916.
In the past decade, over 85,000 Black Chicagoans left the city — many in search of affordable housing or other opportunities, according to the Chicago Urban League's "State of Black Chicago" report released in June.
Kimble spoke more about gentrification in Bronzeville and what it means for Black wealth in the city.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How do you see the state of housing in Bronzeville?
As someone who makes a major real estate investment, you want amenities in your community, coffee shops, grocery stores and boutiques. But anyone who pays attention knows when the grocery stores, Starbucks and banks show up — that's like the harbinger of gentrification.
I fear for the legacy of Black people who are forced to leave but want to live in Bronzeville, and what that means for the legacy of those folks who came before me and my children. If I sell my house, I'll never get back over here. That's robbing my children of their legacy.
When did it start to feel like gentrification ramped up in Bronzeville?
I didn't start seeing a large number of white people until right about when the [housing] bubble was about to burst in 2008. But after the market began to correct itself, we saw this ramping up, and that's where you started to see the changing demographics. Around when they started tearing down public housing, I saw the writing on the wall.
I think high-rise public housing was a bad idea. But when Black people began to buy into the dismantling of public housing, I don't think anyone sat back and asked why white people were [the ones] deciding public housing needed to be reconstructed — or where those thousands of people in public housing were going.
What is lost for communities when faced with this choice of staying or being forced out?
We lose a connection to our history. Bronzeville is one of the most studied Black communities in the United States. If you want to learn about what it means to be Black in America, you look to Chicago. America is a history wasteland. If you lose your history, you have nothing tangible to hold on to.
Black people are overwhelmingly being forced out of cities. We're being priced out of the city and will never return here. Washington, D.C., is no longer Chocolate City. Black people can't afford to live in Atlanta. Houston is changing. These Black enclaves are changing, and we're being displaced and left out of the equation.
What happens when Black middle- and upper-class people return to Bronzeville? Where should they exist in this conversation?
They could be agents of change. They're invested in Black Chicago and seeing Bronzeville succeed. There's trepidation about what's going on; we know that our resources and our money won't protect us.
Many of us will continue to fight for places like Bronzeville. It's a special place where working-class folks — up to the professional classes — can find a spot, but there's a great deal of fear that we may be priced out and moved out.
How can people invest in Bronzeville without displacing people?
There are ways to encourage investment in Black spaces, and some may have to take place at the governmental level. One of the initiatives the Chicago Urban League is working on is addressing the Black wealth gap. Now, people are selling their homes because they can't afford it; grandma or grandpa died, and no one wants to pay the taxes on a home, so they quickly sell the house instead of figuring out how to use it as a revenue generator.
We need more educational resources about what programs exist for first-time homebuyers and people who need to rebuild their credit. Gentrification is serious, especially when we're thinking about how Black people can make sense of living in Chicago financially.
Rents are high, and rents are essentially bad investments — you get nothing from it. People get into real estate, but it's getting to the point where white real estate interests are making it almost impossible for Black people to stay in Bronzeville.
Support City Bureau’s work to reimagine local news by becoming a recurring donor today.