Rough conditions in the agricultural South prompted many African-American families to migrate to Arizona in the mid-1930s. They settled in places like Eloy and Casa Grande before coming to Chandler to work on farms and in the cotton fields. The earliest of these families rented homes along Saragosa and Morelos streets. Many African-American families attended churches in Southside. Elder Scott founded Grace Memorial Church of God in Christ in 1935; services were held under a tamarack tree until the church was built on Morelos Street. To the northeast, on Colorado Street, is Mt. Olive Baptist Church. Services began with Reverend Moses Howard in a tent on Lot 12 of Saragosa Street in 1938. He traveled to Chandler once a month to hold services until 1940.  

• Photo: Mt. Olive Façade.jpg

By 1939, military conflicts abroad were increasing, and it wouldn’t be long before the lives of Chandler’s citizens would change dramatically. In the neighborhood’s formative years, Hispanic and African-American families established a unique bond. Most everyone in the neighborhood existed in the same socio-economic class, and neighbors helped one another out. “You couldn’t have asked for a better neighborhood. It was a good, loving neighborhood. The kids got along.  You could sleep outdoors or on the porch. You could walk downtown at night and no one would bother you. Everybody watched out for everybody,” states former resident Peggy Woods.   A strong sense of community was created in the first few decades of the neighborhood’s existence. Food, an essential life component, bound residents of Southside neighborhood. Throughout the following pages, you’ll explore stories, memories and recipes of some of the families who arrived in the neighborhood between 1900 and 1939. The family stories and recipes are listed in alphabetical order.