Before you begin searching the Web, try some of these sites to help get you started. Get ideas for names, places, events to search later on your own.

• Chicago History
  • Encyclopedia of Chicago Chicago Historical Society
  • Chicago Blues Covers 1950's.
  • History of African Americans in Chicago, Wikipedia
  • South Side of Chicago - history, Wikipedia

• Fair Housing History
  • Washington Park Subdivision - Wikipedia article.
  • From Encyclopedia of Chicago
    • • Washington Park Subdivision
      • Restrictive Covenants
      • Open Housing
  • Home Histories, Lorraine Hansberry House South Side Weekly
  • Lorraine Hansberry House, historical landmark. 
  • Housing and Race in Chicago Chicago Public Library
  • The History Behind Hansberry v. Lee by Allen R. Kemp, U.C. Davis Law Review, v.20 no.3 pp481-499.
  • Redlining in Seattle, November 2, 2016 article from the Seattle PI.
  • January 8, 2016 article from the BBC, Why don't black and white Americans live together?.
  • BBC Podcast America in Black and White: Segregation.

• The Great Migration
  • Chicago - Destination for the Great Migration
  • In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience Excellent authoritative site on all migration periods from slave trade to the present, including the Great Migration (1916-1930) and the Second Great Migration (1940-1970).
  • US African American population by county, 1930 census Note the high concentration of African Americans in Chicago and Detroit.
  • Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration series 

Jacob Lawrence - The Migration of the Negro (panel No.1), 1940-41, casein, tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 inches, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. © Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence.

• Civil Rights Movement
  • African American Odyssey - The Civil Rights Movement.  Library of Congress American Memory Project

• Literature
  • Publishers Weekly bestseller lists for 1950-1959
  • New York Times bestseller lists for 1950-1959

• Music
  • YouTube 1950's music compilation
  • Black Music History Library 

• National Museum of African American History and Culture - Smithsonian.
  • All collections - Search by topics, date, place, and type of object. Explore!
  • 1950s clothing
  • 1950s Chicago
  • 1950s photographs
     
• Lorraine Hansberry
  • PBS documentary on Lorraine Hansberry including short TV interview clips.  On YouTube.  Not well documented, but very interesting content.
  • Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes / Feeling Heart.  Click on "More Purchase Options" for $2.99 SD streaming rental from Amazon.  Especially worth it for Group 3.  Exceptional documentary on Hansberry's life and work. 
  • Radio interview with Lorraine Hansberry.  Hansberry speaks with noted Chicago author and radio host Studs Terkel about writing A Raisin in the Sun.
  • Columbia University, Social Justice Wiki - Lorraine Hansberry.  Archived site.  Click on the following links at the bottom of the page: Biography of an Intellectual, Her Writing, Hansberry as a Social Activist, Hansberry's Life: a Timeline.

The Bigger Picture - Beyond Chicago and the 1950's

•  Other African American Museums and Memorials
  • List of museums focused on African Americans
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture - Smithsonian.
  • From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration - Equal Justice Initiative museum.
  • Memorial of Peace and Justice - Equal Justice Initiative national memorial to victims of lynching.
     
• 1619 Project - 400 Year Anniversary of American Slavery
  • The 1619 Project, New York Times Magazine
    New York Times Magazine issue observing the 400th anniversary of American Slavery.
  • The 1619 Project readings on Youtube
    Four hundred years ago, on August 20, 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia.  This anniversary is remembered with an evening of conversation and performance featuring Nikole Hannah-Jones, Wesley Morris, Jamelle Bouie, Tyehimba Jess and more.