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BLACK CHICAGOland TIMELINE

this timeline highlights the rich and long-standing history of Black life across chicagoland, including the city, suburbs, and various villages and towns that make up the city-region. this timeline is not meant to be exhaustive. it is an ongoing and collaborative project. if you have an entry to add or find an error, please reach out to us using our contact form. 


sources: wttw: dusable to obama, chicago sun times, the chicago defender, dr. april l. graham-jackson from uc berkeley, dr. preston h. smith ii from mount holyoke college, dr. larry mcclellan from govenors state university, and the work of geoffrey baer. additional contributors from our community, include: justin bertrand jr. 

1779: Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free African man of French Haitian descent and first permanent non-Native person, settled on the north bank of the Chicago River and founded what would become Chicago 


1817: Northern border of Illinois is moved north placing Chicago in Illinois 


1818: Illinois is admitted into the Union as a free state


1819 (to 1865): Black Codes are enforced


1830 (and onward): settlers in eastern Will County

and southern Cook County provided assistance to  freedom seekers with safe houses along the old Sauk Trail corridor


1833: Chicago is incorporated as a town


1837: Chicago is incorporated as a city


1840: Enslaved persons who were fugitives and freedmen establish the first Black community in Chicago 


1844: Quinn Chapel AME Church is established


1848: Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed


1850s: Railroads in Chicagoland develop with hundreds of enslaved persons who were fugitives using these routes to seek freedom in Canada 


1853: Black delegates in Chicago convened at the first Convention of the Colored Citizens of Illinois to protest the Black laws


1865: Union Stockyards open 


1871: John Jones, the first Black Cook County commissioner, is elected into office 


1871: The Great Chicago Fire kills close to 300 people, destroys almost four square miles of the city, and leaves many residents homeless


1874: School segregation is outlawed in Chicago


1878: Ferdinand Barnett founded The Conservator, the first Black newspaper in Chicago


1885: Segregation is outlawed in public spaces in Chicago 


1885: First signs of policy game emerge


1889: Jane Addams establishes Hull House 


1891: The city of Harvey was founded and had one of the earliest small Black communities in the South Suburbs, Chicago Southland, and the Calumet Region


1891: Provident Hospital, the first Black hospital in Chicago, opens on the South Side 


1893: World's Columbian Exposition takes place in the city 


1893: The city of Chicago Heights was founded and had one of the earliest, small Black communities in the South Suburbs, Chicago Southland, and the Calumet Region


1893: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs first successful open heart surgery in America at Provident Hospital 


1894: Ida Platt becomes the first Black woman to earn her law license in Illinois 


1895: Ferdinand Barnett sells The Conservator to his wife Ida B. Wells


1896: Shaffer Chapel (African Methodist Episcopal Church), one of the oldest Black congregations in the South Suburbs (Chicago Southland), is established


1899: Amanda Berry Smith founded one of the first orphanages for Black children in Illinois in Harvey


1900: Flow of the Chicago River is reversed


1904: Old Settlers Social Club is formed


1905: Publisher and editor Robert Sengstacke Abbott debuts The Chicago Defender


1908: Jesse Binga opens Binga State Bank, the first Black owned bank in Chicago


1908: Mt. Glenwood Memory Gardens, the oldest Black cemetery in the region, is established


1909: Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett introduce the "Plan of Chicago"


1911: The Chicago American Giants (an all Black baseball team) is founded


1911: The Lincoln Cemetery, organized by Black funeral directors, is established in Blue Island


1915: Onset of the Great Migration (first wave)


1915: Jazz debuts in Chicago


1915: Oscar Stanton De Priest is elected as the first Black alderman in Chicago

 

1916: Thomas Andrew Dorsey (father of gospel music) migrates to Chicago


1916: The Chicago Urban League is established 


1917: The Village of Robbins, the first northern municipality solely governed by Black people, is founded


1919: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 (23 Black people were killed)


1919: Joseph Bibb debuts the Chicago Whip ("Don’t Spend Your Money campaign" in the Black Belt)


1919: Claude Barnett forms the Associated Negro Press


1920: Mississippi Delta blues arrives in Chicago 


1920s: Robbins becomes a center for Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association 





1924: Vivian Harsh becomes the Chicago Public Library’s first Black librarian


1925: Pullman Porters: Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters Union is formed (first all Black union)


1926: Anthony Overton debuts The Chicago Bee 


1926: Harlem Globetrotters is established in Chicago

 

1926: Carter G. Woodson launches Negro History Week, which eventually becomes Black History Month 


1927: Writer and poet Richard Wright (Native Son, Black Boy) arrives in Chicago 


1928: SB Fuller, one of the nations first Black millionaires, arrives in Chicago


1929: The Bud Billiken Parade debuts in Bronzeville


1931: Cornelius Coffey and John C. Robinson establish the Challenger Aero Club (airfield to teach Black aviators how to fly at Robbins Airport). Janet Harmon Bragg provides the first airplanes for the airport and school. She is also the first Black woman to earn a commercial pilot's license 


1933: A Century of Progress (World’s Fair)


1933: William L. Dawson is elected to second ward alderman


1937: Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is established 


1938: First housing projects in Chicago are built (Jane Addams Houses, Lathrop Homes, and the Trumbull Park Homes) 


1940: Onset of the Great Migration (second wave)


1940: Photographer and writer Gordon Parks moves to the South Side and opens a portrait studio at the South Side Community Art Center


1942: Robert Rochon Taylor, great-grandfather of Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Barack Obama, is appointed as the first Black Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority

 

1943: Eric Monte is born (creator of the movie Cooley High and television shows Good Times and What’s Happening!) 


1945: John H. Johnson debuts Ebony Magazine


1945: The landmark study Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City is published (by Black co-authors Horace Cayton and St. Clair Drake)


1947: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is established 


1948: Destination Freedom (radio drama that highlighted achievements of African Americans) debuts on NBC|WMAQ


1950: Founding of Chess Records 


1951: John H. Johnson debuts Jet Magazine 


1955: Emmett Till is murdered in Money, Mississippi 


1955: Richard J. Daley takes office as mayor 


1959: Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun debuts on Broadway 


1960: The Woodlawn Organization is formed


1961: DuSable Museum of African American History is established


1964: Jesse Jackson Jr. arrives in Chicago


1966: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King move to|march in Chicago 


1968: Democratic National Convention (Mayor Daley issues "shoot to kill" order)


1968: AfriCobra (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), a collective of Black artists, is established


1968: Afro American Patrolmen’s League, consisting of Black police officers to protect Black communities after Mayor Daley’s shoot to kill order, is established


1968: Riots due to the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. break out on the West Side


1969: Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, members of the Black Panther Party, are savagely murdered 


1970: Don Cornelius debuts Soul Train in Chicago


1970: Onset of the new Great Migration (third wave reverse)


1971: Union Stockyards close 


1971: Joseph G, Bertrand, the first Black man to hold a major elective office in Chicago, is sworn in as City Treasurer during Daley's fifth mayoral inauguration


1971: Tom Burrell founded Burrell Communications (the nation's largest African American-owned marketing firm)


1971: Anna Langford becomes the first Black woman elected to Chicago City Council


1971: Reverend Jesse Jackson Jr. starts Rainbow|PUSH on the South Side 


1972: Early rudiments of house music and house culture emerge in the Black gay and bisexual community in South Shore


1972: Mosque Maryam (Temple #2-headquarters of the Nation of Islam) is established in Chicago







 

1972: Hills v. Gautreaux landmark case is decided


1973: John H. White is hired by the EPA to take photos of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA 


1974: Good Times (TV show about a Black family in Cabrini Green projects) debuts 


1974: 974 murders are recorded in Chicago (still the highest number in a calendar year in the city’s history)


1974: Robert Williams, owner of the Warehouse and the Muzic Box, arrives in Chicago 


1975: Whitney M. Young Magnet High School opens as the city’s first public magnet high school (Former First Lady Michelle Obama's alma mater) 


1976: Mayor Richard J. Daley dies in office 


1977: Frankie Knuckles debuts at US Studios (The Warehouse-the first all-Black and gay nightclub) in Chicago


1979: Jane Byrne elected first female mayor of Chicago 


1979: First jazz fest takes place 


1979: Disco demolition occurs at Comiskey Park 


1983: Harold Washington elected first Black mayor of Chicago 


1984: First blues fest takes place 


1984: Michael Jordan is drafted to the Chicago Bulls 


1984: Ben “Benjy” Wilson is murdered 


1985: Barack Obama arrives in Chicago


1986: The Oprah Winfrey Show (filmed in Chicago) debuts nationally 


1987: Mayor Harold Washington dies in office


1987: Juice bar ordinance is passed impacting nightlife culture especially the Black house music and cultural community 


1987: Eugene Sawyer takes over mayoral office becoming the second Black man to hold the position of mayor of Chicago 


1989: Richard M. Daley becomes mayor of Chicago 


1991: The Chicago Bulls win the NBA championship, which marked the beginning of one of the greatest basketball dynasties in history (six championships | two three-peats)


1992: beloved house DJ Ron Hardy passes away 


1992: Carol Moseley Braun is elected as the first Black woman to the United States Senate


1994: Robert “Yummy” Sandifer is murdered by Black Disciples street gang


1994: Common Sense (BKA Common) releases his second album Resurrection introducing Chicago hip hop to a broader audience


1997: Black youth Girl X is sexually assaulted and brutally beaten in Cabrini Green Projects 


2000: CHA’s Plan For Transformation is announced to redevelop public housing in the city

 

2008: President-elect Barack Obama delivers presidential acceptance speech in Grant Park 


2009: Theaster Gates establishes Rebuild Foundation, a non-profit that utilizes cultural initiatives to transform neighborhoods and buildings on the South Side 


2010: McDonald vs. City of Chicago argued, which overturns city handgun ban 


2011: Rahm Emanuel is elected 55th Mayor of Chicago putting an end to the Daley family regime. He is also the first Jewish mayor of Chicago


2011: The last building in the Cabrini Green projects is demolished 


2013: Rahm Emanuel closes 50 Chicago Public Schools in predominantly Black and Latinx|a|o communities 


2014: 82 people shot, 14 fatally over July 4 weekend prompting the usage of the term "Chiraq" in mass media to describe violence in the city    


2014: renowned house DJ Frankie Knuckles passes away 


2016: Construction begins on new South Side trauma center after 25 years of community protesting 


2016: CTA announces plans to extend red line train to 130th street providing public transportation to residents on the far South Side of Chicago


2016: The Barack Obama Foundation announces plans to build the Barack Obama presidential library in Jackson Park on the South Side 


2019: Lori Lightfoot is elected Mayor of Chicago. She is the first Black and openly gay woman to be elected mayor of a major city. She is also the second woman and second Black American to be elected mayor of Chicago. 


2022: Jennifer Hudson becomes the youngest Black person, the second Black woman, and the third Black person to achieve EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) status 


2023: Brandon Johnson is elected Mayor of Chicago. He is the third Black person elected mayor and the fourth Black person to serve as mayor of the city. 

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