How Black History Month started in a Chicago building

The former Wabash Avenue YMCA of Chicago in Bronzeville houses the Renaissance Collaborative, a social services organization founded in 1992 to save the landmark from being demolished.

Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons

A Bronzeville building is the birthplace of Black History Month

The start of Black History Month can be traced back to a YMCA in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

The former Wabash Avenue YMCA of Chicago in Bronzeville houses the Renaissance Collaborative, a social services organization founded in 1992 to save the landmark from being demolished.

By Max Lubbers

Black History Month has its roots in a weeklong celebration announced by Carter G. Woodson, a prominent Black historian. And he made that very announcement in a YMCA in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

Reset learns the history of the Woodson and talks with a group that preserves the Bronzeville building that houses this legacy.

GUESTS: Lionel Kimble, board member, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and associate professor of history and Africana studies at Chicago State University

Oji Eggleston, executive director of the Renaissance Collaborative