Property and Racial Exclusion in Illinois: Patterns and Practices from Colonial Slavery to Suburban Marginalization, 1720s–2010s

THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, the intersection of race and ethnicity with property—what has been defined as property, who has property rights, and who can benefit from property—has impacted people and communities. In Illinois, other northern states, and in the United States more broadly, access to and the belief in the right to property and all that comes with it is highly racialized.¹ In this discussion, we consider the changing forms of racial exclusion via property by specifically examining how the complex legacy of slavery and the Illinois Black Codes in the early statehood years, three significant race massacres in the early twentieth century, and the local and informal practices in suburbs regarding open housing and development contributed to broad and dynamic racialized property patterns.² Across these periods, this study reveals the connections between when African Americans were considered property and when they and...