<P> "Old stock" Americans who relocated to Chicago after 1900 preferred the outlying areas and suburbs, with their commutes eased by train lines, making Oak Park and Evanston enclaves of the upper middle class . In the 1910s, high - rise luxury apartments were constructed along the lakefront north of the Loop, continuing into the 21st century . They attracted wealthy residents but few families with children, as wealthier families moved to suburbs for the schools . There were problems in the public school system; mostly Catholic students attended schools in the large parochial system, which was of middling quality . There were a few private schools . The Latin School, Francis Parker and later The Bateman School, all centrally located served those who could afford to pay . </P> <P> The northern and western suburbs developed some of the best public schools in the nation, which were strongly supported by their wealthier residents . The suburban trend accelerated after 1945, with the construction of highways and train lines that made commuting easier . Middle - class Chicagoans headed to the outlying areas of the city, and then into the Cook County and Dupage County suburbs . As ethnic Jews and Irish rose in economic class, they left the city and headed north . Well - educated migrants from around the country moved to the far suburbs . </P> <P> Chicago's Polonia sustained diverse political cultures in the early twentieth century, each with its own newspaper . In 1920 the community had a choice of five daily papers - from the Socialist Dziennik Ludowy (People's daily) (1907--25) to the Polish Roman Catholic Union's Dziennik Zjednoczenia (Union Daily) (1921--39). The decision to subscribe to a particular paper reaffirmed a particular ideology or institutional network based on ethnicity and class, which lent itself to different alliances and different strategies . </P> <P> As the First World War cut off immigration, tens of thousands of African Americans came north in the Great Migration out of the rural South . With new populations competing for limited housing and jobs, especially on the South Side, social tensions rose in the city . Postwar years were more difficult . Black veterans looked for more respect for having served their nation, and some whites resented it . </P>

In the 1850s what was responsible for the death of about 6 of chicago's population