Black Organizing in Pre-Civil War Illinois: Creating Community, Demanding Justice

Making Black Chicago

Hesler’s Panorama, 1858: Northern and eastern views of Chicago from the dome of the city Courthouse. (Source: Couresty of Chicago History Museum, ICHi-005742, ICHi-005740, ICHi-005740, ICHi-005738, ICHi-005736; Alexander Hesler, photographer.)

In the 1840s and 1850s, Chicago emerged as a center for Black life and activism, for Illinois and for the Midwest as a whole.

— Migration

— Churches

— Schools

— The Underground Railroad