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During and after World War I, many African-Americans arrived in the Douglas neighborhood from the rural south, and the community soon became the heart of Black Chicago. By the early 1940s, government urban renewal projects led to the demolition of much of the neighborhood's aging housing stock. New construction, primarily in the form of public housing, took its place.

In the 1950s, the Chicago Land Clearance Commission purchased and leveled 100 acres of decaying buildings around 31st Street and South Parkway (now Martin Luther King Drive). The commission sold much of the property to private developers for construction of Lake Meadows, an enormous residential and commercial complex designed by the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill. The developers hoped to attract residents of various racial and economic backgrounds and to promote community renewal.

In the mid-1950s, the Land Clearance Commission sold additional acreage to both the ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ and the Board of Education.  The ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ acquired land for the park from 1949 until 1956.  After developing a plan for its newly-acquired property in 1957, the Park District improved it with a playground, an athletic field, and a shaded lawn for picnicking and public events. Adjacent John J. Pershing Elementary School was completed in 1958, and the Park District immediately began to manage the school grounds as part of the park.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, improvements included additional trees and a new soft surface playground.