Census Shows Shrinking Black Population in Glencoe

The 2010 census results confirmed a lack of diversity in Glencoe: The village is 94 percent white and just 1.2 percent black.

But it wasn't always this way. According to local history buff Bob Sideman, for most of the 20th century, Glencoe had a black population that held constant at 400 people, or as much as 8 percent of the residents. has had black students from its inception, and most of those students have come from Glencoe, where African-Americans have lived since the 19th century.

But as housing prices have risen, Glencoe has lost about 100 black residents in each of the last four censuses, and their population now stands at 107 people in the 2010 census. 

Blacks were among the very first residents of Glencoe, making the village unique to the North Shore. In 2009, Sideman published African Americans in Glencoe: The Little Migration that documented the village's black history.

“Racial diversity had always been important to me, and I saw it disappearing a few years ago,” Sideman said. “When I saw that happen, I decided to grasp it before it slipped away from us -- to at least record it.”

Black residents settled much of the south side of Glencoe in the 1880s, helping to build the isolated community dominated by woods. Sideman said real estate developers knew the lakefront communities north of Chicago would be attractive places for affluent Chicagoans, but without a working class to provide manual and domestic labor, the rich residents could not have a high standard of living.

Developer Morton Culver encouraged blacks to relocate from segregated Chicago, creating the only black community between Evanston and Lake Forest.

“[Culver] would get these people jobs. He could make money from mortgages while they were building up the community,” Sideman said. “It wasn't long after African-Americans came out that the economy of Glencoe began to pick up.”

Glencoe's black population started as a working class for the village and neighboring communities. But over time, their presence made the south side of Glencoe an attractive suburban location for more affluent African-Americans.

Glencoe has been home to executives such as those from the Urban League and Johnson Products. In the 1970s, Bill Williams served as the first black village trustee, and Glencoe had a black village president, James Webb, in the 1990s.

Early in the 20th century, Glencoe had a large enough black population to support two churches. Sideman said the village's black community has centered around St. Paul AME  at the corner of Green Bay Road and Washington Avenue.

A church has sat on that site since 1884, when the first of three St. Paul AME's was built. The land was donated by the great-grandfather of Nancy King, who still lives in Glencoe. Her ancestor mortgaged his home to buy the plot for the church.

King, 76, lives on Jefferson Avenue, and she is the fourth generation of her family to reside in Glencoe. Both of her parents were born in Glencoe, and though she spent a bit of her early adult life in Evanston, she yearned to return to where her aunts and cousins lived.

King moved back in 1965, and she has lived in the same house ever since. “I always loved this house since I was a little girl, because I knew the people who lived here,” she said.

The original St. Paul AME church was burned by arsonists in 1931 and the congregation rebuilt the structure almost immediately. The second church became difficult to maintain and was razed in 1991 so that a new church could be built.

Even as Glencoe's black population declined, the church still had a growing congregation.

“When I was growing up, practically everyone lived in Glencoe,” King said. “They don't any more.”

Instead, St. Paul AME attracts members from communities to the west, such as Buffalo Grove and Libertyville.

“Some people like a small church like this because everybody knows everybody,” King said.

King said she is the last of her family to remain in Glencoe. Her son and husband have passed away, and her daughter lives in Mundelein, where house prices are not as high.

“If I were to move from Glencoe, I couldn't afford to come back,” said the longtime resident.

She said her cousin recently sold the family's original home on Adams Street, where the first St. Paul AME services were held in 1882. As has happened to many of the smaller, older homes in Glencoe, the new owners have decided to tear it down and start anew.