Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference

The Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC) was formed in 1949 to stem growing physical decay of neighborhoods and to promote better race relations in the community. Following World War II, the South-Side Chicago neighborhood was one of many American communities affected by the nation's housing shortage. The housing problem was aggravated in Hyde Park and Kenwood by illegal conversions of single-family residences into smaller units, and by a general decline in the maintenance of properties. The rapid immigration of African Americans from the southern United States to Chicago complicated matters, fueling tensions between neighbors and precipitating "panic pedaling" and "white flight" in previously white, middle-class neighborhoods.

On November 8, 1949 concerned white and African-American citizens met at the First Unitarian Church of Chicago to discuss these pressing issues. The meeting was presided over by Rev. Leslie T. Pennington, and included forty participants representing local faith-based organizations, various human relations commissions, business leaders, and University of Chicago faculty members and students. Confident that white and African-American people could live peacefully together, and convinced that urban decay was a mutual problem, attendees called for a new community organization whose goal was "to build and maintain a stable interracial community of high standards."

A steering committee was formed with Rev. Pennington as chairman, and on December 12, 1949 three-hundred citizens from fifty community organizations assembled to adopt a statement of policy for the fledgling organization. The name Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference was officially adopted on January 18, 1950, and an Executive Committee was formed in March 1950. The HPKCC was initially a volunteer-run organization. It soon became apparent, however, that paid staff and a central office were imperative for sustainable progress. As a result, the Conference's first director, Julia Abrahamson, was hired on a half-time basis in July 1950. In November 1950, the Conference moved into its first headquarters at 5506 S. Harper Avenue. By-Laws were adopted on August 7, 1950, and the first meeting of the Board of Directors took place on January 15, 1952.

The early structure of the Conference included a thirty-six member Board of Directors, with twelve members elected each year for three-year terms. The Board set policies and hired the Executive Director, who in turn hired and supervised staff. The Executive Committee, made up of the officers of the Conference, handled administrative decisions. Administrative committees fluctuated throughout the years to include: Finance, Membership, Nominating, Publicity and Public Relations, Advisory, and Personnel. Today, Conference leadership consists of a Board of Directors and five standing committees: Communications, Executive, Finance, Membership, and Nominating.

Program committees and goals have also changed throughout the HPKCC's history as the Conference works to meet the changing needs of the community. The Conference's first efforts concentrated on stabilizing, conserving, and renewing Hyde Park and Kenwood in the face of deteriorating neighborhoods and social unrest. The HPKCC focused on arresting rampant building and zoning violations, improving housing conditions through rehabilitation and tenant unions, and actively engaging with city-wide urban renewal planning through its Planning Committee. Through the formation of Block Groups, the Conference provided the means for neighbors to interact, discuss common interests and concerns, and cooperatively solve problems at a grass roots level. The Block Groups worked to find concrete solutions for physical problems in neighborhoods, while simultaneously fostering effective interracial communication and changing attitudes. Individual participation in Block Groups and other Conference activities was not contingent upon paid membership. Over the years, HPKCC programs grew to encompass other issues, including parks and recreation, youth and schools, safety, transportation, and environmental concerns such as air pollution.

Membership in the Conference reached its peak in 1956 with approximately four-thousand members and over sixty affiliated Block Groups. The HPKCC included many notable members of the Hyde Park community, including Laura Fermi, author, co-founder of the HPKCC Clean Air Committee, and wife of Nobel Prize recipient Enrico Fermi; Muriel Beadle, chair of the Committee for a Cleaner Community and wife of University of Chicago President, G. W. Beadle; and Jean Alinsky, wife of community organizer, Saul Alinsky.

Today, the HPKCC works for "an attractive, secure, diverse, and caring community," and promotes "participation of residents, businesses, institutions, and organizations in programs and activities that advance the interests and concerns of the community."