What is Unvarnished? What topics does the online exhibit cover?

Unvarnished: Housing Discrimination in the Northern and Western United States is a free online exhibit examining the history of residential segregation in America by spotlighting six communities from California to Connecticut and placing their histories within a national context. Visitors will learn how the large-scale system of housing discrimination based on exclusionary practices defined by race, ethnicity, or religion intensified in the 1890s and over much of the twentieth century. The exhibit features articles, videos, expert interviews, oral histories, primary documents, and photographs that showcase how informal localized systems of segregation became national policy and were sustained over time, culminating in the mid-twentieth century Fair Housing Movement. 

Topics covered include segregation, immigration, The Great Migration, sundown town legacies, discriminatory zoning, restrictive covenants, suburbanization, the fight for open housing, and their contemporary legacies.  

To view the online exhibit, please visit UnvarnishedHistory.org



Show All Answers

1. What is Unvarnished? What topics does the online exhibit cover?
2. What communities are featured in the exhibit and why were these communities selected?
3. How was the online exhibit funded?
4. What type of research went into the Unvarnished online exhibit and its teacher resources?
5. How can teachers incorporate Unvarnished into their history lessons?
6. Was Naperville’s history of exclusion unique to this region?
7. Why is the Naperville Heritage Society sharing this history?