Chicago history is full of consequential years

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When it comes to picking the most consequential year in Chicago’s history, 1919 rises to the top for many historians because of how the race riots that year had a big impact on how the city segregates itself. But our experts agree that picking one pivotal year in the city’s history is impossible. Of course, years like 1871 or 1893 stand out for the Great Chicago Fire and the World’s Columbian Exposition. But what about important moments for civil rights and women’s rights? What about arts and culture? Hop inside the time machine as we explore other key years in Chicago’s rich history.

Transcript

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0:30.9	What's up, Chicago? I'm Erin Allen, and this is Curious City.
0:34.9	So last episode, we tried to answer this near impossible question, what is the most consequential
0:41.2	year in Chicago history?
0:43.2	We talked to a few local historians who somewhat reluctantly landed on one year, reluctantly
0:48.8	because history doesn't just happen in one year.
0:52.5	Alas, they all mentioned 1919.
0:55.0	Among other things, this is the year of the Chicago Race Riot,
0:59.0	which had a big impact on how the city segregates itself today.
1:03.0	But our historians had a whole bunch of years that were big for Chicago.
1:07.0	So today, we're going to slice it from a few other angles.
1:10.0	Like, what was the most
1:12.3	consequential year from the perspective of civil rights? Women's rights, or arts and culture.
1:20.7	And FYI, at the risk of this feeling a little all over the place, we're leaning into the fact
1:25.6	that time is not actually linear.
1:28.3	So strap in and come along for the ride.
1:32.3	Let's start with 1966, which was an important year for civil rights.
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