Black History Month is almost over, Chicago — but our appreciation for the men and women of this beautiful community continues throughout the year.
Today’s newsletter focuses on 24 Black Chicagoans who have defined our city. Let’s take a look back at these groundbreakers, policy shapers and the uplifting stories of their triumphs — both big and small. It’s not a definitive list, but an overview of some of the great minds and spirits who have called Chicago home. Many of the names are familiar, but we hope there are a few, too, that are new to you.
All follow Chicago’s first non-indigenous resident, a Black man named Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, for whom Lake Shore Drive was renamed last year. Some came to the city from the South as part of the Great Migration. Others survived the worst race riot in Chicago history. How many more were inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s move to Chicago in 1966, to confront housing segregation? One very special import arrived as the third pick in the 1984 NBA Draft and left a Hall of Famer.
Many have enjoyed at least one Bud Billiken Parade — a summer back-to-school tradition. Several notable deceased icons are buried in Blue Island’s Lincoln Cemetery and visiting their graves is a history lesson in itself.
We hope you enjoy getting to know these AMAZING Chicagoans and share YOUR newsletter suggestions with Marianne Mather and me.
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See you next week!
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
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Bessie Coleman: First Black female pilot in America
Bessie Coleman came back from France a century ago, having realized her dream. A manicurist in a Chicago barbershop, she returned from that trip as the first African American woman airplane pilot and possessed by a mission to share what she’d learned: “In the air there is no prejudice,” she said.
Considering the racial hatreds at ground level, what she accomplished in the few years she was fated to live is barely believable. Bessie Coleman Drive at O’Hare International Airport is named in her honor. Yet the true story of her life was long elusive because she rarely gave an interview without mixing fact and fancy, as she chose to be seen on a given day.
Alice Clark Brown: Trailblazing Black circus aerialist
When Alice Clark Brown told her family she was going to leave college and join the circus in 1972, they were shocked. But after catching “the showbiz bug” as a child in Washington Park, she decided she was going to see the world, said her sister, Anna Clark.
See the world she did, touring as the first Black woman in the Blue Unit of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. When she returned home to Chicago, she started a career marked by creativity and drive that loved ones described as a want to always be “ripping and running.”
Harold Washington: Chicago’s first Black mayor
To many Chicagoans, the election of a black mayor still seemed as miraculous on the day Washington died — Nov. 25, 1987 — as it had on the night when the ballots were counted on April 12, 1983.
“I thought it would be never,” recalled Ophelia Sanders, manager of a shoeshine parlor near City Hall, where Washington collapsed at his desk. Fire Department paramedics rushed him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where his death was announced.
Florence B. Price: First Black female composer to have a full-length work performed by a major orchestra
In 1932, Florence Price entered her finished symphony in a contest sponsored by a philanthropic foundation that supported Black composers. It won a first prize of $500, or $9,600 in today’s dollars.
The money was a financial lifesaver. And the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s request to perform her symphony was a stamp of approval — but also a burden. Musical scores then had to be copied by hand. It required a group effort, a friend of Price’s told Rae Linda Brown, author of the recently published biography “The Heart of a Woman: The Life And Music of Florence B. Price.”
“During the cold winter nights in Chicago, we used to sit around a large table in our kitchen — manuscript paper strewn around, Florence and I extracting parts,” Margaret Bonds recalled. “We were a God-loving people, and, when we were pushed for time, every brown-skinned musician in Chicago who could write a note, would ‘jump-to’ and help Florence meet her deadline.”
Oscar Stanton De Priest: Chicago’s first Black alderman
Oscar Stanton De Priest had presence. Fair-skinned enough to pass for white, and standing at least 6 feet tall with white hair adorning his head, he was distinctly noticeable, “perhaps the most striking Negro in Chicago,” one Tribune reporter penned.
But it was his presence as the only Black person in national political leadership that provided hope to millions of African Americans who were finding their way in a shifting country.
Rev. Jesse Jackson: Minister, civil rights advocate, politician, intermediary, social justice proponent and COVID-19 survivor
The civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has spent the last 60 years of his life in front of cameras advocating for social justice.
“His legacy is a profound leadership that aided in moving America forward and aided in addressing the question of racism and discrimination,” said U.S. Rep Maxine Waters about Jackson’s legacy. “It was Jesse Jackson’s leadership, along with other greats that really created change, and the movement toward opening up America to all.”
Floy Clements: First Black female lawmaker in Illinois
When Floy Clements became the first Black woman to serve in the Illinois legislature, her father wasn’t there to see her sworn in on Jan 7, 1959. He died decades earlier. Yet he and his wife knew they made the right choice to raise their daughter in Chicago.
Etta Moten and Claude Barnett: One of Chicago’s first power couples
It was written in the stars for Etta Moten and Claude Barnett to be married on the fly. Professional lives made theirs a commuting romance for years after friends in Chicago felt they should meet.
Gene Baker: The Chicago Cubs’ other first Black player
Ernie Banks was not supposed to be the Chicago Cubs’ first Black player. Gene Baker, a fancy-fielding, 28-year-old shortstop with the Cubs’ top farm team, was penciled in for that role in 1953. The previous year, Baker’s manager with the Los Angeles Angels had pronounced him ready to make the jump to the big leagues.
“I suggested that Baker be taken to spring training next season by the Cubs,” manager Stan Hack, himself a former Cubs star, told the Chicago Defender. “Also that if he looks good enough they should keep him instead of farming him out again.”
Timuel Black: Teacher, writer, lecturer, decorated military veteran, archivist and Chicago’s unofficial chief historian who chronicled the evolution of Black life and culture
Of the stories that Timuel Dixon Black Jr. told or relayed to generations that have come through the South Side of Chicago, his wife Zenobia Johnson-Black said he would often retell the tale of how his parents came to Chicago in 1919 to what is now the Bronzeville area when he was 8 months old, leaving Birmingham, Alabama.
“He looked around and noticed the injustice,” Johnson-Black recounted. “So he said to his mom, when he was 8 months old: ‘S—, I’m leaving this place!’ He took credit for bringing his parents up here because he didn’t know how to change his diaper, so his mother had to come and his daddy had to come to take care of his mama and him.”
Vivian Harsh: Chicago’s first Black librarian
You won’t find a book by Vivian Harsh on a library shelf. Not even in the special collection that bears her name in the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library on Chicago’s Far South Side. When she died in 1960, the Chicago Defender’s obituary was headlined: “Historian Who Never Wrote.”
Yet Harsh, Chicago’s first Black librarian, was fiercely committed to history. Vernon Jarrett, a columnist for both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, recalled something she told him when he was a child:
“If we as Negroes knew the full truth about what we, as a race, have endured and overcome just to stay alive with dignity, our respect and hunger for education would triple overnight.”
John C. Robinson: ‘Father of the Tuskegee Airmen’ fought Italy’s fascists as commander of Ethiopia’s air force
John Robinson, who trained at the Tuskegee Institute to be an automobile mechanic, moved to Chicago in 1927 and soon opened a garage in Bronzeville on 47th Street near Michigan Avenue. He lived close by with his wife, Earnize.
He found ways to indulge his fascination with aviation and build his skills. He established the Brown Eagle Aero Club, a coed group of young African American aviation enthusiasts. He bought a kit for a build-it-yourself airplane and, with the help of friends including Cornelius Coffey, began assembling it in his garage with a retrofitted motorcycle engine. The group eventually moved the project to space at the airport in Melrose Park. Robinson’s contacts there led to his first training as a pilot, and he earned his pilot’s license just a few years after moving to the city.
Carl Hansberry: Defied a racist real estate covenant and inspired ‘A Raisin in the Sun’
The brick three-flat at 6140 Rhodes Ave. is no different from any other in Chicago — except for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed its place in American history.
The Tribune reported the justices’ action laconically: three paragraphs under the headline “U.S. Court Kills A Ruling Barring Negro Residents.” The 1940 news brief didn’t even identify Carl Hansberry as the Black man whose neighbors tried to keep him and his family from living among them through a legal real estate tactic known as a restrictive covenant.
Yet suppose the Tribune had reported that one of Hansberry’s children was a 10-year-old named Lorraine. Could anyone have predicted that she would later distill the hatred and violence her family suffered into a play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first Broadway production written by a Black woman?
Mary Wallace: First female bus driver for Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority’s first woman bus driver already has an idea for the company suggestion box — a slight redesign in the uniform.
Miss Mary E. Wallace, 22, the new driver, said at a press conference yesterday that she likes the blouse and gray and blue colors of the CTA driver’s uniform, but would like it better if the bottom of the pants legs were flared.
Roi Ottley: Chicago Tribune’s first local Black writer
Roi Ottley was the first locally based Black writer hired by the Chicago Tribune, and while his seven-year career at the paper was cut short by his death from a heart attack in 1960 at age 54, he distinguished himself during his tenure as a keen observer of issues relating to race, voting and domestic migration.
Ottley was a major figure among Black journalists and was the first African American war correspondent for major newspapers during World War II. He wrote human interest stories about Black soldiers, witnessed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s execution and even interviewed Pope Pius XII.
Oprah Winfrey: Host of Chicago-based, nationally syndicated daytime talk show for 25 years
Oprah Winfrey has become a profound mover of books, magazines and moisturizers, of course, but mostly she has moved the emotions of her audiences.
“For multiplying her expanding brand across multiple platforms, she is in a class by herself,” said Jason Maloni, chair of the sports and entertainment practice at Levick Strategic Communications in Washington. “It’s a tremendous confluence of the right person at the right time, and it’s been phenomenal to watch.”
Fred Hampton: Black Panthers leader killed in a hail of gunfire
For a generation of Chicagoans, their opinion of what happened in 1969 when Chicago police raided the West Side apartment of Black Panther Party members depended greatly on what neighborhood they called home.
For the public at large, it was as police officials described: a dramatic gunfight launched against police by violent Black nationalists that left two dead and four wounded.
But for others, particularly socially conscious African Americans, the Dec. 4 raid on the two-flat at 2337 W. Monroe St. was a cold-blooded execution of Black Panthers leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, ordered by federal authorities eager to snuff out burgeoning Black leadership.
Ida B. Wells: Activist and journalist who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize 89 years after her death
If you have not read the work of Ida B. Wells, now is the time. Much of her writings and other documents from her life dating back to 1884 are available online through the University of Chicago Library. The archival diaries, manuscripts and news clippings offer an up-close account of what bravery looks like in the face of terror.
Wells’ timeless pieces were written as Blacks were under siege by rebel racists who killed rather than relinquish their positions of privilege. Even as she risked being lynched, she refused to back down from saying exactly what needed to be said.
John H. Johnson: Founder of Ebony and Jet magazines
The Ebony story began when a 25-year-old Johnson borrowed $500 in 1942 using his mother’s furniture as collateral to start his first publication, Negro Digest — a periodical that informed readers about Black people fighting in World War II. While the digest would not stay, it served as the foundation for Ebony and the Johnson Publishing Co. Periodicals would ebb and flow under the Johnson Publishing banner — the news digest Jet and Ebony Jr! for 6- to 12-year-olds — but Ebony magazine remained the flagship publication.
By 1972, Johnson Publishing would be headquartered in its own now-landmarked building at 820 S. Michigan Ave. The modernist 11-story building, the first and only high-rise in downtown Chicago designed by an African American, was a touchstone for the Black community, much like Ebony was, and it attracted dignitaries and history-makers.
Frankie Knuckles: ‘Godfather’ of house music
Knuckles came out of the New York disco scene in the ’70s and he became known as “the godfather of house” after moving to Chicago and working the turntables at the West Side club the Warehouse. He would extend mixes of soul and R&B records and turn them into dance tracks, introduce new singles being produced by fledgling house artists and incorporate drum machines to emphasize the beat. His sets were revered for the way they built momentum and created drama, and held packed dance floors in thrall from Saturday night till dawn and beyond Sunday morning.
He also played a key role as a tastemaker, de facto talent scout, and producer, working with artists such as Jamie Principle and remixing records by Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode. His major-label albums incorporated the lush orchestrations he favored as a DJ.
Barack Obama: First Black president of the United States
Barack Obama said goodbye Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2017, to a nation that delivered him a historic presidency and challenged Americans to fulfill democracy’s promise as a new era of government in Washington, led by Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump, is about to begin.
Even as Obama exits the world and national stage in little more than a week, he pledged to an estimated 18,000 gathered at McCormick Place in his adopted hometown of Chicago that his social and civic activism will continue — as a citizen.
Michelle Obama: First Black First Lady of the United States
Michelle Obama was born and raised in Chicago. Visit these 10 sites that have shaped her life, career and marriage to Barack Obama.
Michael Jordan: Chicago Bulls legend
The 10-part ESPN documentary series “The Last Dance,” which focuses on Michael Jordan’s final championship season with the Chicago Bulls, brought the Hall of Famer’s astonishing achievements back into focus.
His accomplishments are numerous and unprecedented: Six-time NBA champion. NCAA title with North Carolina. Two-time Olympic gold medalist. Rookie of the Year. Five-time NBA MVP. Six-time NBA Finals MVP. 10-time All-NBA First Team. Nine time NBA All-Defensive First Team. Defensive Player of the Year. 14-time NBA All-Star. Three-time NBA All-Star MVP. 32,292 points during his 15-year career — the third-highest total in league history. Ten scoring titles — an NBA record and seven consecutive matching Wilt Chamberlain. Retired with the NBA’s highest scoring average of 30.1 points per game. Hall of Fame inductee.
Here’s a look back at Jordan’s incredible life and career as depicted in photos, stories, videos and pages of the Chicago Tribune.
Percy Julian: Chemist who pushed past racial barriers — amid attacks on his Oak Park home
He hadn’t even moved into the spacious house on North East Avenue when Percy Lavon Julian got an unmistakable message that someone didn’t want the internationally renowned scientist living in one of suburban Oak Park’s most exclusive neighborhoods. Julian was only the third African-American in the United States to hold a Ph.D. in chemistry.
The fire chief said that the Julian family’s home was being renovated when arsonists broke in on Nov. 22, 1950, and splashed gasoline on the walls and floors of its 15 rooms. Failing to light the gasoline with a long gauze fuse, the vandals tossed a kerosene torch through a porch window.
“A neighbor heard the crash of glass and looked in time to see two men driving away in a small dark sedan,” the Tribune reported.
Firefighters saved the house. But racism was a daily fact of life for Julian.
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