‘Revisiting Utopia’
Documentary seeks to chronicle efforts to integrate Park Forest
On Christmas morning 1959, the day after DePaul University assistant professor of economics Charles Wilson and his family moved into Park Forest, they were welcomed by Ethel Klutznick, the wife of village founder Philip Klutznick. She came with a cake with the words “Welcome to the Wilsons to Park Forest” on it.
The Wilsons and their three preschool children were the first Black family in town and the offering was more than a friendly gesture. Those words were a powerful statement that after 10 years of growth, the all-white village was ready to accept integration.
At the time, Park Forest was a Republican-leaning community. But while neighboring suburbs failed to break racial barriers, village officials, encouraged by residents, acknowledged it was time to tear down the walls of race. The move-in was preceded by meetings held throughout the community by Mayor Robert Dinerstein and police Chief Milan Plavsic. Their message was simple: this is going to happen and we want you to respect the decision.
No public demonstrations would be tolerated and none took place.
Six decades later, Black residents comprise two-thirds of the village’s population. Yet former resident Phil Rockrohr says that in the 22 years he spent growing up in the community, from 1968 to 1990, Park Forest was a different kind of town in a different kind of time. That is why he is spearheading the development of a documentary film “Revisiting Utopia,” which will examine the question of race in a place once acclaimed for its diversity.
The film will focus in on the social history of the community as told by its residents.
Rockrohr began his exploration with questions: Was the racial harmony he experienced real or was it only a romantic fiction perpetrated by white society, which often patted itself on the back for merely observing the common rules of decency? And if Black people still faced those verbal and physical aggression living in “Utopia,” why was their story seldom told?
By peeling away the years, Rockrohr said he also discovered a different yet compelling story. In his time in Park Forest, children, both Black and white, experienced race relations in a manner found virtually nowhere else.
“By the mid-’80s I think we
were colorblind,” Rockrohr says. “It did not matter who anyone dated and Park Forest became a sweet spot of racial harmony.”
Integration in the village came slowly. Real estate agents allegedly were asked not to put Black families side by side in an effort to avoid panic selling of homes by fearful whites, and some of his interviewees acknowledged that officials kept a list of all Blacks living in the village.
Rockrohr said verbal slurs and physical confrontations are still recalled, but he insists the end result in Park Forest was a kind of “social magic” that welded together the youth of the community.
The project will take both time, which is always easy to spend, and money, which is harder to get. As of this day, Rockrohr and his five partners in the project have slightly more than $11,000 in the till, but are looking for another $14,000 on Indiegogo, an online funding site that includes a clip of the documentary. Donations range from $5 to $5,000 with incentives ranging from your name in the credits to being named chief executive producer.
In a statement on the site, Rockrohr writes that Park Forest “provides a real-life story of the challenges of achieving racial harmony” and of how one community achieved the goal.
Whether the final result will be a full-scale documentary or something less is up in the air, bur Rockrohr says he is committed to finish the project by 2023.
Nobody has all the answers to Rockrohr’s questions.
“I don’t know if it was the schools, the community events, the concerts or parades or the community culture or politics that de-emphasized race,” he says. “No one knows why, but no one we interviewed said what took place was bad.”
The dictionary gives us three definitions of the word “utopia.”
It is (1) a place of ideal perfection in laws, government, and social conditions; (2) an impractical scheme for social improvement; or (3) an imaginary and remote place.
Take your pick.