Cicero most recently is seeing a new influx of residents,
mostly Puerto Rican and Polish. Cicero also has seen a revival in
its commercial sector, with many brand-new mini-malls and large
retail stores. New condominiums are also being built in Cicero,
ranging in price from $150,000 to $300,000. Cicero has long had
a reputation of government scandal.
Most recently, Town President Betty Loren-Maltese was sent to federal
prison for misappropriating funds. She was well-liked by retired,
long-term Cicero residents, but was continually challenged by younger
Hispanic opponents before her indictment. Cicero was taken up and
abandoned several times as site for a civil rights march in the
mid-1960s.
The American Friends Service Committee, the Rev. Martin Luther
King, and many affiliated organizations, including churches, were
conducting marches against housing and school de facto segregation
and inequality in Chicago and several suburbs, but the leaders feared
too violent a response in Chicago Lawn and Cicero. Eventually, a
substantial march (met by catcalls, flying bottles and bricks) was
conducted in Chicago Lawn, but only a splinter group marched in
Cicero.
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