Beyond Maxwell Street: Minority Street Vending, Segregation & Criminalization in 20th Century Chicago, IL

• In Event: Posters II

Abstract

Who has enjoyed the legal right to work in public spaces and under what circumstances? This poster presentation addresses these questions with a focus on the involvement of racial minorities in street vending during the 20th century in Chicago. Unlike European immigrants who created public markets, such as the city’s famous Maxwell Street, Mexican- and African-American vendors faced social and legal restrictions on their self-employment efforts that involved the use of or presence in public space. The uneven enforcement of regulations and prosecution of minority vendors served as a tool to maintain racial control along with housing segregation and political marginalization. Yet, the continued effort of minority vendors to earn income through street selling asserted their de facto rights to the city. Uncovering the historic criminalization of street vending in Chicago calls for critical attention to the current efforts to decriminalize street vending, an activity that remains marginal in terms of the city’s geography and invisible in the city’s social life and representation.

Author

• Clinton Nichols, Dominican University