Timuel Black

 

I was fortunate to work with Timuel Black, a Chicago historian, educator and activist a number of times for over a decade.  As an aloof undergraduate in Sociology 125; Chicagoland, I went on a tour of Bronzeville with him.  Then, as a graduate student at Loyola's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), I met him again and it was then when I fully appreciated his significance and brilliance. After that, I contacted him myself to bring teachers on tours of Bronzeville as a professional development opportunity.  We often stopped for lunch at one of his favorite soul food restaurants, Pearl's place before dropping him off at his house on Drexel.  He was incredibly down to earth and kind, but wise and so thoroughly knowledgable.  Then in January of 2009, in frigid weather, at the inauguration of Barack Obama I bumped into him.  By chance, we were both sitting in section orange.  I felt incredibly privileged to be at that event in that section with him.

Timuel was a Studs Terkel of Chicago's Bronzeville Neighborhood.  His book Bridges of Memory (in two volumes) captures the rich and complicated history of Bronzeville.

From the publisher:

A collection of interviews with African Americans who came to Chicago from the South. In their first great migration to Chicago that began during World War I, African Americans came from the South seeking a better life--and fleeing a Jim Crow system of racial prejudice, discrimination, and segregation. What they found was much less than what they'd hoped for, but it was much better than what they'd come from--and in the process they set in motion vast changes not only in Chicago but also in the whole fabric of American society. This book, the first of three volumes, revisits this momentous chapter in American history with those who lived it.

Oral history of the first order, Bridges of Memory lets us hear the voices of those who left social, political, and economic oppression for political freedom and opportunity such as they'd never known--and for new forms of prejudice and segregation. These children and grandchildren of ex-slaves found work in the stockyards and steel mills of Chicago, settled and started small businesses in the "Black Belt" on the South Side, and brought forth the jazz, blues, and gospel music that the city is now known for. Historian Timuel D. Black, Jr., himself the son of first-generation migrants to Chicago, interviews a wide cross-section of African Americans whose remarks and reflections touch on issues ranging from fascism to Jim Crow segregation to the origin of the blues. Their recollections comprise a vivid record of a neighborhood, a city, a society, and a people undergoing dramatic and unprecedented changes.

And his memoir is Sacred Ground: The Streets of Timuel Black

From the publisher,

Timuel Black is an acclaimed historian, activist, and storyteller. Sacred Ground: The Chicago Streets of Timuel Black chronicles the life and times of this Chicago legend.

Sacred Ground opens in 1919, during the summer of the Chicago race riot, when infant Black and his family arrive in Chicago from Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the first Great Migration. He recounts in vivid detail his childhood and education in the Black Metropolis of Bronzeville and South Side neighborhoods that make up his "sacred ground."

Revealing a priceless trove of experiences, memories, ideas, and opinions, Black describes how it felt to belong to this place, even when stationed in Europe during World War II. He relates how African American soldiers experienced challenges and conflicts during the war, illuminating how these struggles foreshadowed the civil rights movement. A labor organizer, educator, and activist, Black captures fascinating anecdotes and vignettes of meeting with famous figures of the times, such as Duke Ellington and Martin Luther King Jr., but also with unheralded people whose lives convey lessons about striving, uplift, and personal integrity.

Rounding out this memoir, Black reflects on the legacy of his friend and mentee, Barack Obama, as well as on his public works and enduring relationships with students, community workers, and some very influential figures in Chicago and the world.