Hal Baron
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Hal Baron (born Harold Maurice Baron; June 4, 1930 - January 18, 2017) was an American economic historian, activist, and policymaker who worked behind-the-scenes to assist disenfranchised communities in inner-city Chicago and later, base communities in El Salvador.[1] Baron's five-pronged approach focused on history, employment, education, housing, and politics, which he saw as interrelated forces of systemic racism.[2] As Director of Research at the Chicago Urban League, Baron developed groundbreaking reports and essays on these themes, demonstrating continued, intentional racial segregation in northern cities such as Chicago.[3] In this capacity, he provided research and statistics to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Chicago Freedom Movement and orchestrated the landmark Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority case that became Hills v. Gautreaux and resulted in the Gautreaux Project.[4] In the 1980s, Baron served as Chief Policymaker to Mayor Harold Washington, where he focused on education reform.[1] He also contributed to the campaigns of Democratic politicians such as Lane Evans, Paul Wellstone, and Jesús "Chuy" García.[4] Later in life, Baron worked alongside Jeff Haas, co-founder of the People's Law Office, in Chicago, and anti-globalization theorist Naomi Klein, as Chair of the Board of Directors to EcoViva.[5]
Biography
[edit]Hal Baron was born in Saint Louis, Missouri.[4] He attended Amherst College in 1948.[2] He attended the University of Chicago for his PhD
Hal Baron directed the Chicago Urban League from 1961-1968; during that time he was a strategic political advisor to civil rights leaders during the Chicago Freedom Movement including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.[6]
He advised the Harold Washington campaign from the early 1980s to 1987, working with Harold Washington's mayoral campaign and during Washington's mayoralty as chief policy advisor.[6]
Works
[edit]CUL reports
[edit]"An Equal Chance for Education" (1962)
"Negro Unemployment" (1963)
"Ballots and Race" (1964)
"Northern Segregation as a System" (1965)
"The Negro Worker in the Chicago Labor Market" (1965)
"The Negro Worker in the Chicago Labor Market" was co-written by Hal Baron and Bennett Hymer.
"Title VI and Federal Controversy in Chicago" (1965)
"Chicago Builds a Ghetto" (1967)
"Negros in Policy-making Positions in Chicago: A Study in Black Powerlessness in Chicago" (1968)
"Planning in Black and White" (1968)
"The Web of Urban Racism" (1968)
Essays and articles
[edit]"Building Babylon: A Case of Racial Controls in Public Housing" (1971)[7]
"Race and Status in School Spending" (1971)[8]
"Racial Domination in Advanced Capitalism" (1975)
"The Demand for Black Labor" (1978)
"Racism Transformed: The Implications of the 1960's" (1982)
"Politics Transformed: Harold Washington Goes to City Hall" (1985)
Unfinished manuscripts
[edit]"The Menace of American Fascism" (1969)
References
[edit]- ^ a b Kates, Joan Giangrasse (June 8, 2024). "Hal Baron, adviser to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, dies at 86". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 24 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
- ^ a b "The Hal Baron Project". The Hal Baron Project.
- ^ Turner, Lou (2021) "Lou Turner on the Hal Baron Project" Off the Shelf Podcast: The University of Illinois' Humanities Research Institute.
- ^ a b c O'Donnell, Maureen (February 9, 2017). "Hal Baron, adviser, 'Idea Man' to Mayor Harold Washington". Chicago Sun Times. Archived from the original on 24 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
- ^ The Hal Baron Project Team, "Central America," The Hal Baron Project, accessed September 30, 2024, https://halbaronproject.web.illinois.edu/omeka/items/show/19.
- ^ a b Planey, Donald (2023). "Hal Baron as Radical Geographer: Institutions, Geopolitics, and the Reproduction of Racial Capitalism". Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 113 (10): 2303–2317. Bibcode:2023AAAG..113.2303P. doi:10.1080/24694452.2023.2223655 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
- ^ Baron, Harold M. (1971). Building Babylon: A Case of Study of Racial Controls in Public Housing. Evanston: Northwestern University. pp. 1–76.
- ^ Baron, Harold M. (Winter 1971). "Race and Status in School Spending: Chicago, 1961-1966". The Journal of Human Resources. 6 (1): 3–24 – via JSTOR.