While mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel have touted Chicago as a “world-class city,” it remains one of the most segregated cities in America. And while it would be easy to think of a city with a billion-dollar park, Michelin-rated restaurants, waterfront views, world-class shopping, and a thriving theater scene as a model for other metropolitan areas, underneath the shiny façade lurks the horrible reality of deeply-rooted and destructive racial segregation.

Throughout THE SOUTH SIDE, Moore shows that race—not class—determines the policies that perpetuate the city’s injustices. Shining a bright light on Chicago’s housing policies, its segregated schools (and lack of political will to integrate Chicago Public Schools), institutionalized practices that leave predominantly black neighborhoods vulnerable to crime and bad banking policies, Moore takes readers inside a system that keeps a segment of the city’s population from having a chance at the American Dream.

In THE SOUTH SIDE, Moore uses her skills as a conscientious reporter to showcase the lives of these those living in these underserved communities. Through intimate stories and investigative research, THE SOUTH SIDE highlights the impact of Chicago’s historic segregation – and the ongoing policies that keep the system intact.

Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Great Migration, THE SOUTH SIDE shows that until segregation is eradicated, there will always be racial inequity.

About the author: Natalie Moore is the South Side bureau reporter for WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR–member station. Before joining WBEZ, she covered Detroit’s City Council for Detroit News. She worked as an education reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and as a reporter for the Associated Press in Jerusalem. Her work has been published in Essence, Black Enterprise, the Chicago Reporter, In These Times, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. She lives in Chicago.

About the interlocutor: Rick Perlstein is the author of three books Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus.

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Global Voices Lecture Series, the UChicago Urban Network, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, and the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.