About

The Newberry Library’s initiative Beyond Belief: Religion and Social Change in 1960s Chicago, which runs through 2029, explores how religion – often overlooked in stories of social change – played a vital role in shaping movements for justice, equity, and community in Chicago. By uncovering these connections, Beyond Belief helps us better understand the city's past and inspires deeper, more inclusive conversations about the forces that continue to shape our world today.

Throughout the twentieth century, the Chicago region experienced successive waves of immigration; among others, Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Europe in the early 1900s; African Americans during the Great Migration; Latino/a populations from the 1920s onward; Arab refugees from the late 1940s; and Native American groups relocated from across the nation in the 1950s. Each new group faced discrimination, oppression, and injustice, and each fought and continues to struggle against inequities to achieve access to political, social, and economic opportunity. In each community, religions played instrumental roles in collective struggles for equality and justice, with churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques often instigating and sometimes resisting social and political change.

We tend to examine each social movement in isolation, without considering connections and continuities among movements over time. This project considers them holistically rather than as separate phenomena. We focus on the 1960s era as a pivotal point of connection among various groups and movements, while placing societal shifts within historical context. The initiative brings together stories, events, oral histories, exhibits, and teaching tools to help diverse audiences from all corners of the Chicago area see the region’s history in a new way – and connect it to issues we still face today.

Sumayya Ahmed, Executive Director, Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Abdul Alkalimat, Professor Emeritus, African American Studies/Library and Information Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Mike Amezcua, Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University
Kevin Boyle, William Smith Mason Professor of American History, Northwestern University
Christopher Cantwell, Assistant Professor of Digital Public History, Loyola University Chicago
Alex E. Chávez, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame
Matthew Cressler, Chief of Staff, Corporation for Public Interest Technology
Laura Dingeldein, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago
Curtis J. Evans, Associate Professor of American Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School
Lilia Fernández, Professor of History, University of Illinois Chicago
Adam Green, Associate Professor of Race, Diaspora, and Indigenous Studies, University of Chicago
Daniel Greene, Subject Matter Expert, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Felipe Hinojosa, John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America and Professor of History, Baylor University
Michael Innis-Jiménez, Professor of American Studies, University of Alabama
Courtney Pierre Joseph, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, Lake Forest College
Deborah Kanter, Professor Emerita of History, Albion College
Leonard McKinnis, Associate Professor, Religion and African American Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Omar McRoberts, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Chicago
Jeffrey Meyers, Instructional Designer, Whitworth University
Tony Michels, Professor of American Jewish History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Kai Parker, Assistant Professor of African American Religious History, University of Virginia
Lisa Poirier, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University
Jane Rhodes, Professor of Black Studies and LAS Associate Dean for Research, University of Illinois Chicago
Kevin Schultz, Professor and Chair of the Department of History, University of Illinois Chicago
Tobin Miller Shearer, Professor of History, Director of African-Am. Studies, University of Montana
Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Associate Professor, History, University of Illinois Chicago
Jakobi Williams, Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Indiana University Bloomington

Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Chicago Collections Consortium
Chicago Cultural Alliance
DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Interfaith America

American Writers Museum
Chicago Architecture Center
Chicago History Museum
Field Museum
National Museum of Mexican Art
SMART Museum of Art and Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Chicago

Project Director: Karen Christianson
Public Humanities Fellow: Brandon Stokes

Website

Graphic Design: Mary Kennedy and Andrea Villasenor
Translations: Georgina Valverde

Beyond Belief: Religion and Social Change in 1960s Chicago is supported by Lilly Endowment Inc., through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. Learn more about the support from Lilly Endowment here.