After Tuskegee, Park joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1914, first as a lecturer (until 1923), then as a full professor until his retirement in 1933. During his time in Chicago, he continued to study and teach human ecology and race relations. In 1914, Park taught his first course in the Sociology and Anthropology department. The course was titled "The Negro in America" and it was, "Directed especially to the effects, in slavery and freedom, of the white and black race, an attempt will be made to characterize the nature of the present tensions and tendencies and to estimate the character of the changes which race relations are likely to bring about in the American system". This class was important from a historical perspective because it may have been the first course ever offered at a predominantly white institution that focused exclusively on black Americans. This set a precedent for classes with similar focuses to come.