Chicago Commission on Race Relations

Formed by the state of Illinois after the Chicago race riot of 1919, the Chicago Commission on Race Relations brought together Black and white civic leaders to study the social, economic, and political forces behind the violence. Its work aimed not just to document what happened, but to explain the deeper patterns of segregation, inequality, and mistrust that shaped life in the city.

The commission is best known for producing The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot (1922), a landmark report that combined interviews, statistics, and on-the-ground investigation. The book remains important for readers interested in the history of Chicago, the Great Migration, and the early study of race relations in America.

Because this is a commission rather than an individual author, there is no single personal life or portrait to feature. What gives the work its lasting value is the scale of its research and its effort to understand racial conflict through careful evidence rather than rumor or rhetoric.