In 1968, Oak Park passed the Open Housing Ordinance, which helped devise strategies to integrate the village rather than re-segregate.

[8] Today, Oak Park remains ethnically diverse, and is known for its socially liberal politics, with 80% or higher voter turnout in every presidential election since 2000.

In 1835, Joseph and Betty Kettlestrings, immigrants from Yorkshire, England, staked out a farm and built a house near Lake Street and Harlem Avenue, west of Chicago.

The "dummy" trains used a miniature steam locomotive with a false cladding designed to conceal most of the moving parts and avoid startling horses.

The Lake Street Elevated Railroad (today’s CTA Green Line) was extended into Oak Park in 1899–1901, although the trains ran at ground level until the 1960s.

The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad (today's CTA Blue Line) was extended into Oak Park in 1905, providing local service over tracks originally placed by the Chicago Aurora & Elgin electric interurban train.

According to the local historical society, "The period 1892–1950 saw the construction of almost all of the housing stock in Oak Park, and most of the village's current buildings.

After World War II, Oak Park was affected by larger developmental trends in the Chicago Metropolitan area.

This included passage of The Open Housing Ordinance in 1968 which has helped maintain the ethnically diverse population seen in the village still today.

This law was relaxed in 1973, when restaurants and hotels were allowed to serve alcohol with meals, and was further loosened in 2002, when select grocery stores received governmental permission to sell packaged liquor.

Among these are Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, writer and author Michael Gerber, the founder and editor-in-chief of Rookie magazine Tavi Gevinson, football Hall-of-Famer George Trafton, McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, city planner Walter Burley Griffin, comedian Kathy Griffin, basketball player Iman Shumpert, mathematician and computer scientist Thomas E. Kurtz, and the voice of cartoon character Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta.

For example, addresses on Austin Boulevard match the Chicago system, with the zero line at Madison Street, and along North Avenue, addresses match the Chicago system, with Austin Boulevard at 6000 W and Harlem at 7200 W. Additionally, Elizabeth Court, located within the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, maintains its original numbering.

In the 1960s, Oak Park residents began a concerted effort to avoid the destructive racial housing practices occurring in nearby communities.

In 1972, the Oak Park Housing Center was founded by Roberta "Bobbie" Raymond to promote integration in the community, by ensuring equal access and discouraging white flight.

Although this law became unconstitutional with the decision in Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Township of Willingboro, use of the signs is still strongly discouraged by local realtors.

Instead, the pattern in a sense leaped over Oak Park to other suburbs farther west, including Bellwood and Maywood, which resegregated in a relatively short time.

[30] Municipal elections for the board of trustees and village clerk generally have much lower voter turnout, averaging around 20% and are held in spring, consistent with state law.

Oak Park and River Forest High School bestows the Tradition of Excellence Award to distinguished alumni, including Ernest Hemingway, Ray Kroc, Dan Castellaneta, football Hall-of-Famer George Trafton, actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, astronomer Chad Trujillo, geochemist Wally Broecker, and environmental leader Phil Radford.

Oak Park and River Forest High School is one of seven secondary educational institutions in Illinois with the ability to induct students into the Cum Laude Society.

Under the direction of Josephine Blackstock and her successor, Lilly Ruth Hanson, it embarked on a vigorous program of recreation for villagers.

[41][42] In 2020 the village experienced a ten percent increase in reported crimes, including more thefts, robberies, and aggravated assaults/batteries, but fewer burglaries, compared to 2019.

[43] Oak Park has an active arts community, resulting in part from its favorable location adjacent to Chicago (7 miles (11 km) west of the "Loop") as well as the village's connections to international figures in the visual, literary, and performing arts such as Ernest Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright, Betty White, and Tymoteusz Karpowicz.

This tradition continues into the present, as Oak Park is home to numerous theater, music, dance, and fine-arts professionals.

The July 4 celebration featuring fireworks draws thousands to the Oak Park-River Forest High School football stadium.

[45][deprecated source] Their album Fires in the Night Hour... from the year 2016 includes a song titled 'Oak Park' in dedication to the band's home.

[46] Frank Lloyd Wright spent the first 20 years of his 70-year career in Oak Park, building numerous homes in the community, including his own and the Walter Gale House.

Many buildings in Oak Park were built by other Prairie School architects, such as George W. Maher, John Van Bergen, and E.E.

[47] Oak Park's housing stock reflects the decades of its rapid growth while it was part of the town of Cicero, and since 1902, when it became a village.

[48][49] There are 2,400 historic sites in Oak Park, the majority of which are homes built in the Queen Anne, Prairie School and Craftsman styles of architecture.

The house was returned to its original 1890s Victorian heritage after restoration in 1992 and is open to the public for tours through The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.