It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report.

Explore from WBEZ.

When Sean Hudson moved to Woodlawn five years ago to attend grad school at the University of Chicago,

he started picking up on a vibe in the neighborhoods near the university. The block that I stayed on was actually university-owned

apartments, and so most of the people on my block were white, because most of them either had

some relationship with the university, or they have just recently moved to the area.

However, when you travel further down Cottage Grove, we meet more of, what I say, the long-time residents.

And I used to always hear people in the community say, you know, I just don't trust you, Chicago moving more south of their campus.

And so it just got me to wondering, like, what is the relationship like?

I'm Jen White, host of WBEZ's Morning Shift on Loan to Curious City.

And to help answer Sean's question, we had to turn to our resident expert.

WBEZ's Natalie Moore not only covers the South Side,

she literally wrote the book, The South Side,

A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation.

So Natalie, this tension Sean was picking up on, what's the story?

It goes back decades. In the early 1930s and 40s, the university supported what's known as

restrictive covenants to keep black residents from living near campus. And actually Lorraine Hansberry's play

A Raisin in the Sun is based on her family's experience trying to buy a home in West Woodlawn.

Then in the 1960s and 70s, UFC wanted to expand its campus south, but the community activists

organized and protested, and ultimately the school agreed not to move

past the midway. Okay, but that stuff happened a long time ago. Have things gotten any better?

Well, there have been some recent battles, too. You had the years-long fight to get the university

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