The Town That Laid the Foundation for America's Civil Rights Movement

President Obama was in Chicago today to declare the Pullman neighborhood a national monument. The ceremony comes a year after lawmakers pushed for that designation for the industrial town as a means to revitalize the area. The town's significance in the history of the labor and civil rights movement is finally being recognized, though George Pullman's original plan in creating the town was to cut his workers off from that very struggle.

The industrialist Pullman, who owned Pullman Palace Car Co., purchased 4,000 acres of Chicago land in 1879 and converted 600 acres into America's first industrial town—full of factories, hotels, and worker housing, according to the Historic Pullman Foundation. The company was famous for their luxurious sleeper cars that offered train passengers all the comforts of home.