Morgan Park

      Prayer Points

• Female single-parent households are increasing in Morgan Park. Pray for access to resources for these families and positive male role models from within the community.

• Pray for the many residents who have been recently displaced due to home foreclosures within the broader community.

• There has been increased violence in neighborhood parks in the community. Pray that these places can be reclaimed for the enjoyment of the residents as they were originally intended.

• Praise God for the numerous churches in this neighborhood. Pray that they would be united and work together to demonstrate the gospel in the community.

      Ethnic Breakdown

• Asian (1.1%)
• Black or African American (54.8%)
• Hispanic or Latino (5.4%)
• White (37.2%)

Neighborhood Background

The middle-class status of Morgan Park was strengthened with the development of main-line Protestant churches that were established in the mid-1800s. Although Morgan Park became a prominently white Anglo-Saxon Protestant community, there was also a small settlement of African Americans living in the area, segregated to the east side of Vincennes.

Although the number of African Americans living in Morgan Park continued to increase through 1920, the community was geographically divided. There was a “common understanding” that African Americans were not to live west of Vincennes Road.

Racial integration did not begin to occur until the late 1960s, which was even more challenging due to the development of Interstate 57, which further isolated the black community. Between 1969 and 1974, four hundred “section 235” subsidized housing units were constructed. To this day, Morgan Park has worked to keep public schools integrated and shopping strips strengthened, and is also home to the Walker Branch Library, and the Beverly Arts Center.