|
|
It began in 1967 with a group of Jesuit seminarians were tasked with neighborhood organizing in North Lawndale. When one of the seminarians, Jack Macnamara, learned from a neighbor that she had just bought her house on contract at a drastically inflated price, he recruited a group of fellow seminarians and students to research property records.
“Monsignor Egan knew that I knew about this. So he put together in his mind what Jack [Macnamara] was talking about and what I had been talking about. He sent Jack down to talk with me, and I spent a lot of time with Jack. He was the first person that I had run into who was on the ground floor and who said, ‘This is something I need to pursue.’” |
The seminarians investigated how much white families sold their houses for, how much black families paid, and who was in charge of these transactions. What they discovered was that both white and black families had been cheated, with black families often paying twice what white families had received.
Beginning in 1968, the seminarians organized meetings with contract buyers in Lawndale. During a meeting Ruth Wells told her story of how she had been cheated, and then asked if others had experienced the same.
Beginning in 1968, the seminarians organized meetings with contract buyers in Lawndale. During a meeting Ruth Wells told her story of how she had been cheated, and then asked if others had experienced the same.
“The effect was electric. Practically every hand in the room shot up. Wells encouraged the people gathered there to ‘tell your family and your friends, your neighbors and the people you work with, if they bought on contract, they should come out."
- Beryl Satter, historian (Family Properties)
It became clear that hundreds of other families had gone through the same experience. Around two dozen members decided to form the Contract Buyers of Lawndale, with the goal of gaining fair contracts for black homeowners.