On August 4, 1953, a Black family moved into the Trumbull Park Homes, a public housing project in the South Deering neighborhood of Chicago. This event marked the beginning of a violent and sustained backlash from white residents, highlighting the deep-seated racial tensions in the city.

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) had initially designated Trumbull Park as whites-only, but after mistakenly identifying a Black woman, Betty Howard, as white, she and her husband were allowed to move in. When the mistake was realized, CHA decided to allow more Black families to move in rather than evict the Howards. This decision led to months of violent protests, vandalism, and harassment by white mobs, who resisted integration with hostility.

The city government and police struggled to control the violence, often siding with white protesters rather than protecting Black residents. The hostility persisted for several years, making it one of the most notorious instances of racial housing conflict in mid-20th-century Chicago.

This event highlighted systemic racism in housing policies and the deep resistance to integration in Northern cities, despite the perception that segregation was primarily a Southern issue. It became a significant chapter in the larger civil rights struggle for fair housing and racial equality in the United States.