The Du Sable Museum of Chicago is an important landmark in and of African American history in Chicago. It’s a must see stop on any tour of the African American community. Read about it below, and be sure to click the video located on the lower left corner. This stop is on the Tour Black Chicago CD.  Drive and Tour.

The Dusable Museum

Since 1990, Tour Black Chicago has provided services for domestic and international travelers. We take you on an expedition through a town where the Black population has grown from 77 to 2 plus million, where some of the most profitable black-owned companies are headquartered, and from which some of our most famous and notable cultural icons have come.

TBC had offered bus tours for visitors prior to 2004. Today we work with other companies to accommodate tourists desiring bus tours. For information on bus tours, please click Tour Black Chicago to send an email. Today we offer ‘tours on CDs’ that you can use as you drive, cycle, or walk through the Bronzeville – Douglas Park communities of Chicago discovering all the hidden treasures. See the city as you’ve never seen it, at your own pace. Tour Black Chicago , the premiere cultural,historical, touring company, will weave a tapestry highlighting the diverse threads that create Chicago whether you choose the bus or the self-directed tour. For information on Tour Black Chicago’s tour on CD, click here.

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Chicago Museums Free Days

Adler Planetarium Free Days

The Adler Planetarium is open 9:30am – 6pm during the summer; 9:30am – 4:30pm otherwise;

Free Days 2010:

September 7, 13-17, 21, 28
October 5, 12, 19, 26
November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
December 7, 14, 21

Art Institute of Chicago

Free Days 2010
The Art Institute of Chicago is free to the public every Thursday evening from 5pm-8pm.

Brookfield Zoo

Free Days 2010
The Brookfield Zoo offers free admission to all U.S. Armed Forces active military and reservist personnel.

Northwestern University – Dittmar Memorial Gallery

Free day for everyone – Every Thursday evening, 5-8pm.

Chicago History Museum Free Days

Free Days 2010
Open to the public every Monday, 9:30am-4:30pm.
Location: 1601 North Clark Street. (Clark & North Ave)

DuSable Museum of African American History
Free Days 2010
The DuSable Museum of African American History offers free admission on Sundays from noon to 5pm.

Field Museum Free Days

Free Days 2010
The Field Museum is Free (basic admission) on the Second Monday of every month, thanks to a donation from Target. Additional free days are also available:

Free Days 2010:
July: 12
August: 9, 24
September: 13, 15, 16, 21, 22
October: 5, 6, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20
November: 2, 3, 8, 10, 16, 17, 30
December: 1, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16

Museum of Science and Industry
Free Days 2010
August 30
September 7, 8, 9,10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28
October 4, 5, 6
November 11
December 6

Shedd Aquarium

Free Days 2010

September 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28
October 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26
November 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30

Jane Addam’s Hull House Museum

Always Free

Loyola University Museum of Art

Free on Tuesdays

Museum of Contemporary Art

Free on Tuesdays

National Museum of Mexican Art

Always free (donations accepted)

Art Institute of Chicago

Free Days 2010
Free Thursdays 5 to 8pm until Memorial Day and after Labor Day

Chicago Children’s Museum

1st Sunday of every month free admission for children 15 and under
Free Thursdays 5 to 8pm for everyone
Location: 700 East Grand Ave at Navy Pier
Hours: Daily 10am-5pm
Thursday evenings 5-8pm

The Great Migration radically transformed Chicago, both politically and culturally.

Between 1900 and 1910, the African-American population grew quickly in Chicago. Much of the growth can be attributed to the Chicago Defender, an African American newspaper, providing copies to train porters to distribute in southern states. The newspaper would highlight employment opportunities and offers to help new migrants to get settled. Many churches were involved with this effort, and southern blacks jumped on the chance to remove themselves from their hostile environments.

Wanting a new life

From 1910-1940, most of the new residents had come from southern rural areas with skills often too low to qualify for big-city jobs. They mostly had been farm workers and laborers in the South. Most were poorly educated due to the inferior schools set aside for them. The new migrants took advantage of the better schooling in Chicago and made a lot of progress.  After 1940, most blacks had been exposed to city living in the south and came with better skills and education. They were the most ambitious, better educated with more urban skills to apply to their new homes.

The Black Belt

The South Side was known as the Black Belt and was inhabited by almost 75% of Chicago’s African American population. The area consisted of run down buildings, abandoned by their former white owners. Discrimination affected their choice of housing.

Hard living in run down buildings

Business
Many of the new residents were tied to domestic service and other manual labor jobs. A handful were small business owners and professionals. Over time, a small, but growing, number of people were able to obtain city jobs, which helped to expand the professional class. Fighting employment discrimination was an ongoing struggle for African Americans in Chicago. Many companies restricted the hiring and placement of blacks. It was not unusual to see signs that said “We don’t hire Negros.”

The migration expanded the market for African American business. “The most notable breakthrough in black business came in the insurance field. There were four major insurance companies founded in Chicago. Then, in the early twentieth century, service establishments took over. The African-American market on State Street during this time consisted of barber shops, restaurants, pool rooms, saloons, and beauty salons. African Americans used these trades to build their own communities. These shops gave the blacks a chance to establish their families, earn money, and become an active part of the community.

Achievement

In the early 20th century many prominent African Americans were Chicago residents, including Republican and later Democratic congressman William L. Dawson, America’s most powerful black politician and boxing champion Joe Louis. America’s most widely read black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, was published in Chicago and circulated in the South as well.

After long efforts, in the late 1930s, workers organized across racial lines to form the United Meatpacking Workers of America. By then, the majority of workers in Chicago’s plants were black, but they succeeded in creating an interracial organizing committee. It succeeded in organizing unions both in Chicago and Omaha, the city with the second largest meatpacking industry. This union belonged to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which was more progressive than the American Federation of Labor.

Constant battle for employment

Blacks began to win elective office in local and state government. The first blacks had been elected to office in Chicago in the late 19th c., decades before the Great Migrations.

References: from the

Celebrate Black History 365 days a year!

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends… Maya Angelou