| Summary: | In Boston and Chicago, the second half of the twentieth century was characterized by conflicts opposing African Americans and the descendants of European immigrants of the previous century, around the sharing of territory. This article analyses the relationship of these ethno-racial groups with the city, parcelled out into neighbourhoods whose borders participated in the definition of identities, sometimes in the same way as ethnicity, race and socio-economic status. The ethnic neighbourhood, populated by the descendants of European Catholic immigrants, could thus be perceived by its inhabitants as a defended territory. Between 1950 and 1980, the battle against racial integration in housing and schools in both cities was thus fought in the name of the defense of informal borders within the city, which contributed to shaping the ways these different actors occupied the urban space.
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