Ford Heights (formerly East Chicago Heights) is a village in

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the List of counties in Illinois, most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, C ...

, United States. The population was 1,813 at the 2020 census. A suburb of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, many of the area's first settlers were

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

and since its incorporation in 1949 the village has remained predominantly Black. Due to the lack of commercial activity and financial stability, the village has declined over the years.

Urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

efforts were attempted in the 1960s, although the village has continued to decline.

Geography

Ford Heights is located at . According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Ford Heights has a total area of , all land. The village lies on the edge of the

Tinley Moraine The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine, which is located farther from t ...

Surrounding areas

: Glenwood :

Chicago Heights Chicago Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,480 at the 2020 census. A south suburb of Chicago, it is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. Its nicknames include "The Crossroads of the Nation" and ...

Lynwood :

Sauk Village : Sauk Village

History

The area that would eventually become Ford Heights was first settled in the late 1840s. It served as a stopping point on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

for runaway slaves fleeing to freedom.History
– Village of Ford Heights, Illinois, USA. Accessed March 18, 2009. By the early 20th century, the area had developed into an agricultural community of farms operated mostly by

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Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

, and

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

. After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

s from the Southern U.S. migrated to the area and worked on the farms. A new subdivision known as the "Park Addition" was created on a farm road from

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, and it attracted residents to the area during the early 1920s. In 1924, 40 families successfully petitioned for electrical service. Soon after, the main east–west road became a two-lane concrete highway designated as

U.S. Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of , it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, afte ...

, part of the transcontinental

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

. By the 1930s, the Park Addition had telephone service and was known as East Chicago Heights. During the 1940s, Alberta Armstrong and others organized both black and white women in the community to raise funds for a new fire truck. By 1948, they had become the East Chicago Heights Citizens Association. East Chicago Heights was incorporated as a village in 1949. The first mayor was Charlie Williams. In the

1950 census The 1950 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 151,325,798, an increase of 14.5 percent over the 131,669,275 persons enumerated during the 1940 census. This was th ...

, 1,548 people lived in the village – 76.9% of whom were black. The Ford Motor Company opened a stamping plant adjacent to the village in 1956. The company offered minorities an equal opportunity for well-paying jobs, and East Chicago Heights developed into a

blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, retail, warehousing, mining, carpentry, electrical work, custodia ...

community inhabited mostly by middle-class black families whose housing choices in suburban Chicago were severely limited at that time. The village's population more than doubled to 3,270 by 1960. That growth continued throughout the decade, with one of the biggest successes being the Sunnyfield subdivision, which opened in 1964 and became one of the most popular neighborhoods in East Chicago Heights. Towards the end of the 1960s, over of housing deemed substandard were cleared and replaced by federally subsidized

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. These developments attracted lower income residents to East Chicago Heights, which strained the village's resources, already limited by little commercial activity and a small tax base. The population rose to 5,000 in 1970 and peaked at 5,347 in 1980. In an attempt to annex the unincorporated site of the Ford Stamping Plant, the village of East Chicago Heights changed its name to Ford Heights in 1987. The move was unsuccessful, and the land eventually was annexed by the neighboring city of

. Often viewed as one of Chicago's most impoverished suburbs and at one point the poorest suburb in the United States, Ford Heights has experienced high levels of political corruption, decaying infrastructure, and an elevated crime rate. In 2008, the Cook County Sheriff's Department took over law enforcement duties for the village. Between 1980 and 2020, the population of Ford Heights declined by more than 66%.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 1,813 people, 885 households, and 567 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 692 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 91.73%

, 2.81%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.50% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.00%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 2.04% from other races, and 2.70% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 3.70% of the population. There were 885 households, out of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 13.33% were married couples living together, 42.82% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.93% were non-families. 30.51% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.67% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.05 and the average family size was 3.06. The village's age distribution consisted of 24.6% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 28.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.9 males. The median income for a household in the village was $37,083, and the median income for a family was $40,082. Males had a median income of $22,263 versus $33,819 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $17,494. About 36.9% of families and 37.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 66.2% of those under age 18 and 18.1% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Ford Heights is in

Illinois's 2nd congressional district Illinois's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Illinois. It stretches south from Chicago's Kenwood community area through portions of the city's South Side and southern suburbs, extending into several m ...

Mayors of Ford Heights

Education

Public education in the village of Ford Heights is provided by Ford Heights School District 169 and Bloom Township High School District 206: Ford Heights School District 169 operates two campuses
Medgar Evers Primary Academic Center (grades PK-4)
an
Cottage Grove Upper Grade Center (grades 5-8)
High school students in Ford Heights attend Bloom Trail High School, which is part of Bloom Township High School District 206.

Transportation

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US *Pace Airlines, an American charter airline * Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

provides bus service on routes 357 and 358 connecting Ford Heights to Chicago Heights and other destinations across the Southland.

References

External links

Ford Heights Community Profile
- Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity {{authority control Villages in Cook County, Illinois Chicago metropolitan area Populated places established in 1924 1924 establishments in Illinois Underground Railroad in Illinois 1949 establishments in Illinois Majority-minority cities and towns in Cook County, Illinois Villages in Illinois