Civil Rights: Cicero Cracks Open Its Doors

Animosity toward blacks and a history of racial violence long ago earned Cicero, Ill. (pop. 62,000), a reputation as the “Selma of the North.” In 1983 the Justice Department sued the Chicago suburb for housing and job discrimination, and last week Cicero’s town board finally agreed to change its ways. Bowing to a consent decree, the town will adopt a fair-housing resolution and eliminate its rule against hiring only residents for municipal jobs. Few observers were impressed. Said the N.A.A.C.P.’s Mel Ford Jordan: “It is an action consistent with 1860, which for Cicero is progressive.” Town President Henry Klosak, noting that Cicero has been subject to federal, state and local civil rights laws for years, does not believe the decree will change much. All it did, said he, was put everything “down on paper.”