Chicago Commission on Race Relations

The Chicago Commission on Race Relations was a non-partisan, interracial investigative committee, appointed by Illinois governor Frank Lowden. The commission was set up after the Chicago riots of July and August 1919 in "which thirty-eight lives were lost, twenty-three Negros and fifteen whites, and 537 persons were injured".^[1]The purpose of the commission was to investigate the causes of the Riot and make recommendations to prevent a tragedy like this from reoccurring.^[1] The research was the first extensive research on interracial Black-white relations conducted in Chicago funded by a government agency.

The sociological study was published in 1922 by the University of Chicago Press as The Negro in Chicago – A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot.^[1] The study included a substantial review of the background of the riots, the riots themselves, and their aftermath, together with original work and investigation into the relations between and perceptions of the black and white communities in Chicago. The Negro in Chicago ran to 672 pages with a number of plates, plans and other additional matter.