Chicago Commission on Race Relations Documents Systematic Anti-Black Conditions

In the aftermath of the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, Governor Frank Lowden appointed a biracial Chicago Commission on Race Relations that spent two years investigating the causes. Its 1922 report, 'The Negro in Chicago,' documented in exhaustive detail the discrimination in employment, housing, schools, and the criminal justice system that created the conditions for the riot. It was one of the first government documents to treat systemic racism as a policy problem requiring systemic solutions — though its recommendations were almost entirely ignored.