Bronzeville Trip

A Map of the Bronzeville area

      For February 16th, our class had to go to the Bronzeville neighborhood and explore.  Bronzeville, at once known as the "Black Metropolis", came about in the early 1900's on the back of the Great Migration. During this time, around 6 million Southern Blacks migrated from the American South to northern and western big cities for work. " The force behind this movement was the Black Press. And behind the Black Press was the FBI and city officials who aimed to keep Blacks in their place" (Johnson). Black newspapers, such as the Chicago Defender would promote the city as an opportunity to the Black community for well-paying jobs compared to share-cropping. The FBI monitored Black newspapers, especially the Chicago Defender, due to these newspapers being anti-Jim Crow; this stance could probably lead to riots over the unfairness that local, state, and national officials inflicted on the black community with Jim Crow laws and segregation. 

 

Fig 1. A map showing a generalization of the routes taken during the Great Migration.

     Bronzeville was one of these communities that were created due to segregation. "The editor of the now-defunct Chicago Bee, James Gentry, first coined the named 'Bronzeville' because of the newly arrived Blacks from the South" (Johnson).   Within this community, art and culture flourished. Writers like Richard Wright (Native Son, Black Boy), musicians like Louis Armstong. and poets like Gwendolyn Brooks called this area home. The area, however, is impoverished as an aftereffect of over-crowding and racial tensions such as the Chicago Race Riot of 1919.  "On July 27, 1919, an African-American teenager drowned in Lake Michigan after violating the unofficial segregation of Chicago’s beaches and being stoned by a group of white youths. His death, and the police’s refusal to arrest the white man whom eyewitnesses identified as causing it, sparked a week of rioting" (History).

Fig 2. A home destroyed due to the 1919 Race Riots. After the state militia was called to ease tensions, President Woodrow Wilison denounced that White gangs instigated the growing racial tensions leading to the riots.

     As time goes on, the area of Bronzeville has been slowly improving the area to modernize and accommodate new audiences.

 THE TRIP

   Due to a mix up in communication and a long commute, Anthony and I were not able to leave campus and go to Bronzeville until around 11AM. Since I had to be back for a class at 1:50PM (I know, this might become a recurring theme, hopefully not) we had to quickly go to places.  We quickly hopped on a #31 CTA bus; This bus headed North on State St. then East on 31 st street until we got off at King Dr.  One of the first things I took note of was the Olivet Baptist Church (3101 S King Dr.). Originally founded on April 6th, 1850 as the Xenia Baptist Church, this parish is the oldest Black Baptist Church in the city.  As churches were a place where one could meet with other like-minded people, the church was active politically; one such example of this was " in 1869 Richard de Baptiste organized Illinois' first 'Colored Convention' to fight for black civil rights" (Olivet Baptist Church).

The church standing current day. The scaffolding over the sidewalk is to protect passers-byes from the damaged main spiral.

    We quickly transferred from our #31 bus to a #3 bus and headed north on King Dr. the #3 CTA Bus heads North-bound and South-bound on King Dr., formally known as Grand Boulevard. This boulevard is part of a series of boulevards built to improve the city's pollution and greenery problem in the 1860's. These boulevards connect some of Chicago's parks together to promote the public park spaces. These streets were well made and maintained in contrast to the mud streets that were popular at the time. With these boulevards, a Citizen of Chicago could easily travel from the city to a place of leisure without having to put up with filth, garbage, or rough roads.
     Getting off at around 26th street, we headed towards the Great Migration statue on the median of 26th and King Dr.

Mercy  Hospital and Medical Center was visible from where we got off from the 3 bus.  Five nuns from Pittsberg came to the Chicago area to establish schools in 1846. This hospital came about in 1852 as a converted rooming house, making it Chicago first chartered hospital. This building was built in 1968 and is not the original location, which was near the Chicago River and Rush Street. 

 Along King Dr. is the Bronzeville Walk of Fame, established 1996 by Mayor Richard M Daley. Starting from the Great Migration statue and ending around 35th street, each plaque memorializes a prominent resident of the community from the past. This one is of  Andrew "Rube" Foster (1897-1930), the founder of the National Negro Baseball League in 1919.

 Due to the salt from the snow removal, some of the plaques were hard to read, but with a little water, you can make out what's on them. This is for the Vaudeville Comedy team of Butterbean and Susie, known for their somewhat raunchy song-comedy routines during the 1920's. An interesting fact is that they married each other in a public ceremony for $50 as a joke but stayed together until death.

The left picture is of the monument celebrating the Great Migration (plus my finger in the corner).  It is a statue of a man leaving with what little wares he has in a suitcase to a northern location for a better life. The suit the man is wearing consists of shoe soles to symbolize the many people who traveled and how worn out one might be making the journey.  The right picture is of a plaque that states the significance of the statue and that it was created by Alison Saar.

A copper bench near the statue. McCormick Place is in the background being a few blocks away from where we were. There are quite a few benches in Bronzeville like this to sever as both a seat and public art, showing that the community is one of creativity that fosters artists.

    After taking pictures of the statue and things around it, we headed on another #3 bus southbound to 35th street. 

A new building being built between 26th street and 29th street. By what I could get online, it looks like the new headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers chapter 134 Local.

The Lake Meddows Aparrtment buildings between 31st and 32nd street. Built in the 1960's.

     We got off the bus around 35th street and walked around.  Our goal was to see the bronze map of Bronzeville, The Victory Monument, and  Supreme Life Building  (3501 King Dr).

Author and Poet Langston Hughes plaque on the Walk of Fame near where we got off. 

The Martin Luther King Jr. Chicago Public library branch. It was built in 1966 but was renamed in 1969 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr..

 Another curious little bench/public art similar to the one by the Great Migration Statue. This one was in front of the library. I see it as a person holding an open book above his head, making a comment about how fundamental education is.

More Plaques from the Walk of Fame that are in front of the Library. They are  (clockwise starting from the top left):
Vivian Harsh the first black librarian in the city, Author and playwright Lorraine Hansberry, Unknown (can not make out due to residue), and Author Richard Wright.

 A billboard advertising a hair local salon. Black cosmetics and beauty products/services have been a central part of the local community.

 A shot of King Dr. looking northward. not much traffic was going down the street that day.

 The  Bronze Map of Bronzeville. Hard to read due to snow covering the top portion and the residue left over.

 

Fig 3. The map in a more readable state from a warmer season.

 A small information booth above the Map, listing some historically significant sites in Bronzeville.

Near the Map of Bronzeville is the Lake Medows Shopping Plaza. As seen in the left of the picutre. there is redevolupment going on to improve the area. A Culver's resutrant is set to be open in the plaza sometime this year.

The photo on the left is of the Supreme Life Building. Built in 1921 by architect Albert Anis, this building was home to the first Black-owned and operated insurance company, Frank L. Gillespie's Liberty Life Insurance. In the 1950's, the facade was remodeled in a then "modern" appearance, but after a remodeling in 2006, the building went back to the original facade. The photo on the right  is of the  memorial plaque on the Supreme Life building identifying it as a Chicago landmark in 1998.

Fig 4. The 1950's facade of the Supreme Life building.

 Guarders outside of the Supreme Life building. The symbols in the middle of the crest symbolize the Black contributions to science, music, and sports.

    The front of the Victory Monument. Erected in 1926, the monument remembers Blacks who served in the 370th U.S. Infantry during WWI, one of the first Black military companies.  The dedication of the statue was on Armistice Day  (November 11) of 1928 but the bronze panels and soldier were added later in 1936. Nearby is the Eighth Regiment  Armory, which was built for the first Black military regiment in America, though sadly we forgot to go there. 

The left and right sides of the monument

   We decided to walk southwards towards Pershing Rd. to see the new Mariano's (3857 S King Dr.) and plan on where to go next.

 A house we saw on King Dr. Notice the roman type columns in the from the seashell above the overhang. My guess is that this was built in the 20's judging by such care in detail and craftsmanship.

After the Victory Monument, King Dr. switches its road layout. Before heading to the monument going southwards, a median is present, but after the monument, the median is removed. for the loss of the median, two smaller side roads run parallel to King Dr. to allow parking for residents. 

 Another house with Roman columns in front of it. It seems to be made of either sandstone or limestone by my guess. I'm also going to guess that it was built in the 1930's

An old, decorated mailbox by one of the homes we went by, obviously from another time. I'm quite impressed that it is not in a state of despair or neglect and some newer mailbox is placed closer to the door. 

 More decorative mailboxes with an even more elaborate faceplate than the other photo.

Nice to see a clash of ages here. The tall building I would say was built during the late 60's-early 70's whine the smaller redbrick was built in the 10's or 20's.

 An open field by Mariano's. The east side of King Dr. has this block gap while the west side has buildings. Seems like Ideal land to develop some sort of park or commercial buildings.

 The new Marino's, packed with people. Since Mariano's focuses more  on finer, higher-priced goods, one can conclude that this was built to attract a new demographic in the neighborhood; this could be good and bad: good that it could make the area more prosperous but bad that it could cause too much change and slowly remove the original residents due to rising costs.

 Mayor Harold Washington on a fence lined up with other influential Black residents from the area.

A mural inside the Mariano's. Done by Hebru Brantley,  I have seen his work at the Cermak-McCormick Place green line station.

  I bought a bag of popcorn, a drink, and a slice of pizza for lunch at Mariano's while Anthony had some mac and Cheese. Due to time constraints, I put my food away for later and planned our next course of action. We only had an hour to get back to campus, so we decided to head back going a different route that we came. We ended up going west on Pershing, North on Indiana Ave., west on 37th street, North on Wabash ( we had to cut through a school's sidewalk), east on 36th st., North on Michigan Ave. , and West on 35th street. We took such an unusual route because we had to go around the police department's parking lot to get to the Police Monument.

 Chicago's Chicken and Waffles (3947 S King Dr).  We made a slight detour south because I saw a mural that looked interesting further up the street. Sadly, we did not have the time to get some food and even if we did, it's lent so I can't eat meat.

 The picture on the left is a mural across the street from the one I spotted. Because Obama is present, I would say that this was painted after 2008 due to Obama's presence.  The  picture on the right is the mural I saw before we made a turn on Pershing. The aesthetics are based in African, Egyptian, and Native American art. I would guess that due to it being painted on stone, that a railroad bridge was connected between the two murals.

Philips Academy Highschool. This is their second building which was finished being built in 1935. The first school was a predominately white school. This School, due to the influx of migrants from the Great Migration, made Philips the first all-black Chicago high school.

 The Apostolic Faith Church (3823 S Indiana Ave.).  While the building is modern, the congregation was founded in 1915 by  Elder A. R. Schooler of Ohio as a small worship and bible group. The current building was built in 2017 and can hold 3,000 worshipers. 

 Oddly, we encountered this informative post on author Richard Wright on Indiana Ave. after the church. Why is it there, I don't know. His house is at 4831 S Vincennes Ave, which is quite a bit away.

 Perspective Charter School. By the looks of it, it was once a public school. IIT seems to have some sort of contract with them as they are allowed to use our symbol. The picture on the right shows that  the school was originally named Benjamin Wright Raymond Public School, and was established 1944.

 The flags are at half-staff in front of the Police Department in honor of fallen Commander Paul Bauer, who was shot in the line of duty in front of the Thompson Center.

The Police Monument. The statue memorizes the 8 officers killed during the Haymarket Square Labor Riot of May 4th, 1886. This statute has been moved many times until it got a permanent home here. It has survived a streetcar crash in 1927 and two separate bombings in 1969 and 1970. The right picture is of the back of the monument with a  list of the names of 8 fallen officers from riot.

 The 35th green line station entrance has a mural depicting famous black Chicago musicians, such as R. Kelly, Nat King Cole, and Dinah Washington.

 A marker located not far from the mural explaining the progress blacks have made in this community.

The photo on the left shows part of the marker talks about black political figures from Bronzeville such as Mayor Harold Washington.  The photo on the right explains how State Street in Bronzeville had many black-owned businesses at one time.

The photo on the left claims that the area around the marker was once called the "Stroll", having some of the many clubs Bronzeville was known for having. Also, note the Egyptian hieroglyphs on this marker. If the marker was not three-sided but four, it would make it appear like an Egyptian Obelisk. The photo on the right is a clearer image of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics which roughlly translate to "Bronzeville".

REFERENCES 

“About.” About | Phillips Academy High School | AUSL, phillips.auslchicago.org/about.

“About King Branch.” Chicago Public Library, www.chipublib.org/about-king-branch/.

“About Us.” Apostolicfaithchurch, www.afcchicago.org/about-us.

“About Us.” lu134.Org, www.lu134.org/?zone=%2Funionactive%2Fview_page.cfm&page=About20Us.

Baer, Geoffrey, director. Biking the Boulevards. Window to the World Communications, Inc, 2010.

“Bronzeville Church Opens New 3,000-Seat Auditorium For Worship.” CBS Chicago, 27 Nov. 2017, chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/11/27/bronzeville-church-new-auditorium-worship/.

Brown, Nikki L. M., and Barry M. Stentiford. The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press, 2008.
“Butterbeans and Susie: A Vaudeville Cabaret.” Riverwalk Jazz, 2011,

riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu/program/butterbeans-and-susie-vaudeville-cabaret.

“Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet.” Discovering Ancient Egypt, discoveringegypt.com/egyptian-hieroglyphic-writing/egyptian-hieroglyphic-alphabet/.

History.com Staff. “The Chicago Race Riot of 1919.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/chicago-race-riot-of-1919.

Johnson, Erick. “The Great Migration Was a Triumph of the Black Press.” LA Sentinel, 11 May 2016, lasentinel.net/the-great-migration-was-a-triumph-of-the-black-press.html.

Olivet Baptist Church - Since 1850 - History, www.olivetbaptistchurchchicago.org/history/index.html.

Olivet Baptist Church, The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005, www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/929.html.

“Our History.” Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, 2017, www.mercy-chicago.org/our-history.

“The Police Monument (Haymarket Riot Monument).” Chicago Public Art, 5 Sept. 2013, chicagopublicart.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-police-monument-haymarket-riot.html.

“Supreme Life Building.” Chicago Landmarks, webapps.cityofchicago.org/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1431.

“Victory Monument.” Chicago Landmarks - Landmark Details, webapps1.cityofchicago.org/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1444.

IMAGES

 Fig 1

https://lasentinel.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/05/greatmigration_geography_chart1.jpg

Fig 2
https://www.newhistorian.com/chicago-race-riot-1919/4447/

Fig 3
http://chicago-outdoor-sculptures.blogspot.com/2009/09/bronzeville-street-map.html

Fig 4
http://webapps.cityofchicago.org/landmarksweb/web/photodetails.htm?phoId=6256