Campus policing is rooted in conflicts between institutions of higher education and the Black neighborhoods near where they are often located. And tensions between universities and Black communities are rooted in deep-seated discriminatory policies in housing. Since well before World War II, Black people demanded an end to racist restrictive covenants and redlining, practices in which Whites denied certain groups access to, or levied higher rates for, home loans and insurance based on neighborhoods. At the same time, many urban universities quietly supported these practices. In 1937, an editorial in the Chicago Defender, titled “University of Chicago and the Black Belt,” described how over “the last four years, a sinister movement, designed to impose further residential restrictions of Race citizens on this metropolis, has gained considerable impetus" — something the university played a role in.
Black residents’ demands for an end to racist housing practices quickly became relevant to White university leaders as overcrowded Black neighborhoods encroached on their campuses. This dynamic resulted in limited housing options that sometimes meant White faculty members and students chose universities not located in the heart of American cities. This issue was accelerated when, in 1948, the Supreme Court’s Shelley v. Kraemer ruling deemed restrictive covenants unconstitutional. While this was a success for the burgeoning civil rights movement that would theoretically allow Black Americans more easily to purchase homes, it posed a problem for universities worried about maintaining White control of neighborhoods around their campuses.
Seeking a new leader and new approach, in 1951, the University of Chicago hired Lawrence A. Kimpton as its chancellor. “We must find ways to reverse the trend” of White students and faculty leaving campuses due to the changing neighborhood, Kimpton said shortly after being hired.
To do so, Kimpton first organized the South East Chicago Commission, with himself as head of the group. The university provided nearly half the budget for the commission, which was dedicated to protecting the institution’s neighborhood interests. A few years later, Kimpton persuaded other urban university leaders to join the national effort to “save” American cities from losing White anchor institutions such as universities to “the cancer of blight” and coordinated the effort.