"The first scholarly study of a local racial advancement organization, History of the Chicago Urban League provides a detailed history of the Chicago League from its founding in 1916 through the early years of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and relates the work of this agency to broader developments in Chicago and the nation. In his introduction, Christopher R. Reed, author of The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910-1966, cites Strickland's work as a landmark study of the earliest civil rights efforts in Chicago."--BOOK JACKET.