Center for Black Music Research – Columbia College, Chicago, IL

The only research center of its kind in the country, the Center for Black Music Research’s (CBMR) mission is to documents, collect, preserve, and disseminate information about the common roots and parallel histories of black music in all parts of the world.  In addition to their central mission of research and preservation, the CBMR also [...]

The Chicago Defender, Chicago, IL

  Founded by Robert S. Abbott in 1905, the Chicago Defender, whose banner once touted itself as “The Mouthpiece of 14 Million People: Carries More Live News of Racial Interest Than Any Ten Weeklies,” was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper by the advent of World War I, with more than two thirds of its [...]

Harpo Studios, Chicago, IL

Harpo Studios (the name ‘Harpo’ is ‘Oprah’ spelled backwards) is where Opray Winfrey tapes her successfully talk show, as well as the site of her state of the art television, film and publishing empire. Opened in 1988, Harpo Studios is located about a mile west of Chicago’s downtown and has been credited with helping revitalize the surrounding neighbourhood known as the West [...]

Bronzeville, Black Chicago in Pictures, 1941-1943.

Synopsis: In the 1940s, the federal government sent a group of gifted photographers across the United States to record and publicize conditions in cities, towns, and rural areas that were the destination of an unprecedented migration. Two of these photographers, Russell Lee and Edwin Rosskam, spent time on Chicago’s South Side, eventually producing over a [...]

The Black Metropolis: Bronzeville, Chicago, IL

Bronzeville by Night, Archibald Motley The large expanse of Chicago’s South Side today called Bronzeville (“the Black Metropolis”) evolved into one Chicago’s most dynamic and elegant communities in the late 1800s. Fairly affluent and solidly middle class by the mid-30s, it was the site of Chicago’s version of the Harlem Renaissance and was home to [...]

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