History in North Lawndale

Jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman was known as the "King of Swing" during his career as a soloist and band leader.  His was the first jazz band to play at Carnegie Hall, and he consistently led racially-integrated bands which included such legends as Fletcher Henderson, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian, Gene Krupa, and Teddy Wilson.  He received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1986.  When he was eight years-old, Goodman's family moved into a residence that was formerly located at 1125 South Francisco Avenue.

Rudy Lozano, who resided at 4030 West 25th Street, was a community activist who stood up for Latinos and African-Americans, among other minorities.  He organized a movement to teach history classes at Harrison High School and helped create the Latin American recruitment program at UIC.  The Pilsen branch of the Chicago Public Library is named in his honor.

On January 26, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King moved with his wife Coretta and his four children into a four-room apartment on the third floor at 1550 South Hamlin Avenue to attract attention to the living conditions of the poor.  He spent the ensuing summer in Chicago protesting housing segregation and pushing for “open housing” laws.  During one of his marches, in Marquette Park, he was struck on the side of the face by a rock and fell to a knee as bottles and other dangerous objects continued to be hurled at his fellow protestors.  In an effort to galvanize support for his American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell was in town, agitating the locals in the Italian-American and Polish-American neighborhoods, and hoping to stir violence against Dr. King and his followers.  The Chicago Tribune quoted king as saying, “I have seen many demonstrations in the South, but I have never seen anything so hostile and so hateful as I've seen here today.”  Dr. King continued his protest marches around the city and then, after he was enjoined from continuing, he took to the close suburbs.  Ultimately, on August 26, 1966, Dr. King and Mayor Richard J. Daley reached an agreement:  The protest marches would stop, and the Daley administration promised to take concrete steps to promote fair housing.  The marches stopped, but the Daley administration did not uphold its end of the bargain.

Al Capone was one of the most notorious gangsters in U.S. history.  He and his henchmen made their money primarily by bootlegging and operating casinos and speakeasies in the Roaring Twenties.  He was on Chicago's first "most wanted" list, and he became the face of 1920s American gangster violence.  The Anton Hotel, at 4835 W. 22nd St in North Lawndale Chicago, was one of at least five of Capone's business headquarters.  It was named for Tony "The Greek" Anton, one of Capone's business associates.