History of the Black Arts Movement in Chicago

History of the Black Arts Movement in Chicago
For more than 65 years, the South Side Community Art Center has been a haven for African American artists. Photo courtesy of South Side Community Art Center
History of the Black Arts Movement in Chicago
For more than 65 years, the South Side Community Art Center has been a haven for African American artists. Photo courtesy of South Side Community Art Center

History of the Black Arts Movement in Chicago

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Many people are still reeling from the death of Margaret Burroughs, the founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History. Borroughs was an artist and activist who had such a passion for art that she brought it into her home, literally.

The South Side Community Arts Center was a haven for many of Chicago’s black artists and the precursor to the DuSable Museum. It was one of 110 art centers established nationwide as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Work Projects.

In 2005, WBEZ’s Steve Edwards talked with Eight Forty-Eight’s longtime contributor, Rita Coburn Whack, about a documentary she produced about the center. Rita says the black artist movement began at the turn of the century. To get a better sense of the contributions of Margaret Burroughs and her contemporaries, Eight Forty-Eight revisits that conversation.

Whack produced the documentary, “Curators of Culture,” for WYCC.

Music Button: Brad Goode, “Nightengale”, from the CD Tight Like This, (Delmark)