King and his wife move into an apartment at 1550 South Hamlin Avenue in Chicago to draw attention to the city’s poor housing conditions.

In January 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King took a bold and symbolic step by moving into a modest apartment at 1550 South Hamlin Avenue in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood. This move was part of the Chicago Freedom Movement, an ambitious campaign to highlight and challenge the city’s deeply entrenched housing discrimination and economic inequality. By relocating their family into the heart of one of Chicago’s poorest communities, the Kings aimed to draw national attention to the substandard living conditions faced by countless Black residents. Their decision was more than symbolic—it was a direct challenge to systemic racism in the urban North. The apartment had no hot water and barely functional heating, mirroring the reality for thousands of families in similar neighborhoods. King’s presence in Chicago helped spotlight issues like redlining, slumlord exploitation, and segregation in public housing. The Chicago Freedom Movement, though met with resistance and sometimes violent backlash, marked an important shift in the civil rights struggle—from battling Jim Crow laws in the South to confronting economic and racial injustice in the North. King’s time on South Hamlin Avenue underscored his evolving vision of civil rights, one that included fair housing, economic opportunity, and dignity for all Americans. #MomentsOfLife #MoofLife_Moment #MoofLife #MLKInChicago #ChicagoFreedomMovement #FairHousing #EconomicJustice #UrbanInequality #KingLegacy #CivilRightsInTheNorth