Yesterday we visited the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Southwest Chicago which, until the 1950s, was the largest livestock yards and meatpacking center in the country. The invention of the refrigerated boxcar in 1880, along with the concentration of railroads in the area, led to the industrialization of food processing and the rapid expansion of the Union Stock Yard and the adjacent packing plants.
The meatpacking industry provided thousands of jobs and attracted numerous immigrant populations including, Irish, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Czech, Mexican and African American communities, whose shared impact you can see in the surrounding neighborhoods today. (University of Chicago/ Chicago Studies)
In 1939, Saul Alinsky, along with Joseph Meegan, founded the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, which still exists today. It became a model for organizers, focusing on identifying common grievances, building large coalitions of existing institutions, and engage in strategic campaigns to pressure those in power to address community needs. The Neighborhood Council supported clergy, business owners, union officials, and neighborhood residents.Their motto was “ we the people will work out our own destiny”. By focusing on cross- organizational cooperation, they could overcome tensions between ethnic and racial groups. The Catholic Church was a major player. Click here to learn more about the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council.
We encourage you to visit the Packinghouse Museum if you are in Chicago.
Perspectives on the Road 
Encouraging and invigorating that they are still around and have successfully changed as the demographics changed. Thanks Karen
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