The story of black Chicago is so rich that few know it all. It began long before the city itself. "The first white man here was a black man," Potowatami natives reportedly said about Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the brown-skinned man recognized as Chicago's first non-Indian settler. It's all here: from the site of DuSable's cabin—now smack-dab in the middle of Chicago's Magnificent Mile—to images of famous and infamous residents like boxers Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Louis. Here are leaders and cultural touchstones like Jesse Binga's bank, Robert S. Abbott's Chicago Defender, legendary filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, Ida B. Wells, the Eighth Regiment, Jesse Jackson, Oprah, and much more ... including a guy named Obama. Here is the black Chicago family album, of folks who made and never made the headlines, and pictures and stories of kinship and fellowship of African Americans leaving the violent, racist South and "goin' to Chicago" to find their piece of the American Dream. Chicago has been called the "Second City," but black Chicago is second to none.
OUR SPEAKER
Lowell D Thompson is a Chicago-born, bred, and based artist/writer/creative catalyst. He calls himself a "recovering adman" because he spent the first 35 years of his adulthood creating ads and commercials for many of the nation's biggest ad agencies and their clients. In fact, he was one of the first AfroAmericans hired in advertising when American companies finally opened themselves to "unwhites" after the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the urban riots that followed. Lowell has spent his entire adult life creating books, paintings, and TV commercials, including Uptown’s Colored Wheel that stands in front of the Riviera Theatre. Lowell also worked on the documentary Channels Changers, which chronicles how he and other Chicago African American admakers helped changed the face of American media.
Learn more about Lowell D Thompson's African Americans in Chicago at WBEZ and Arcadia Publishing or look for it at your favorite retailer.
Chicago Hyde Park Village's free Drop-In seminar series is held every 2nd Wednesday of the month. All are welcome! Invite a friend!
WOULD YOU LIKE A REMINDER?
You may optionally sign up to receive a friendly email reminder with the Zoom Meeting details on the morning of the seminar.
Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified when we post a new video recording. |