Neighborhood Strolls - Chicago with Kids - page 201

Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf; Thomas A. Dorsey, the “father” of
gospel music, and his greatest disciple, singer Mahalia Jackson; Robert
Taylor, head of the Chicago Housing Authority, after whom the CHA's
most notorious buildings are named; and Ralph Metcalfe, the Olympic-
gold-medalist sprinter who turned to politics once he got to Chicago,
eventually succeeding Dawson in Congress.
When open housing legislation enabled blacks to live in any neigh-
borhood, the flight of many Bronzeville residents to less crowded areas
took its toll on the remaining community. Through the 1950s almost a
third of the housing became vacant, and by the 1960s the great social
experiment of urban renewal through wholesale land clearance and
the creation of large tracts of public housing gutted this once thriving
neighborhood.
In recent years, however, community and civic leaders appear com-
mitted to restoring the neighborhood to a semblance of its former
glory. Landmark status has been secured for several historic buildings in
Bronzeville, including the Liberty Life/Supreme Insurance Company,
3501 S. King Dr., the first African-American-owned insurance company
in the northern United States, and the Eighth Regiment Armory, which,
when completed in 1915, was the only armory in the United States con-
trolled by an African-American regiment. The former home of the leg-
endary Chess Records at 2120 S. Michigan Ave.—where Howlin' Wolf,
Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley gave birth to the blues and helped define
rock 'n' roll—now houses a museum and music education center, Blues
Heaven Foundation ( & 312/808-1286 ), set up by Willie Dixon's widow,
Marie Dixon, with financial assistance from rock musician John Mellen-
camp. Entertainer Lou Rawls, who grew up at 45th Street and King
Drive (formerly South Pkwy.), is building the Lou Rawls Theater and Cul-
tural Center at the famous crossroads of 47th Street and King Drive,
where Chicago's fabled Regal Theater once stood and hosted perform-
ances by such legends as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzger-
ald. Along Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, between 24th and 35th
streets, several public art installations now celebrate Bronzeville's her-
itage as well. The most poignant of them is sculptor Alison Saar's Great
Northern Migration bronze monument, at King and 26th, depicting a
suitcase-toting African-American traveler standing atop a mound of
worn shoe soles.
For tours of Bronzeville, contact the Chicago Office of Tourism's
Chicago Neighborhood Tours at & 312/742-1190; Tour Black Chicago at
& 312/332-2323; or the Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism
Council at & 773/548-2579.
of the nation's oldest zoos (established in 1868). You'll find it easy to spend a
whole day and evening in Lincoln Park and the surrounding neighborhood.
Thanks to the museums, zoo, and beach, plus shopping and restaurants in the
surrounding neighborhood, there's something for all ages.