Chicago Advocacy

"Thomas Photography"
Along with Detroit and Cleveland, Chicago was one of the major receiving cities of the Midwest during the Great Migration. African Americans, mostly from the Gulf Coast states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana traveled by way of the Illinois Central Railroad to settle in the Bronzeville area of Chicago. Dubbed the Black Metropolis and the “city within a city,” Bronzeville was abustle with thriving businesses, fashionable hangouts, dynamic churches, and more. However, the urban Midwest also presented challenges such as segregated and overcrowded housing, discrimination in industrial workplaces, white hostility, and clashes between recent Southern arrivals and long-standing African American residents.
Mary Garrity ,Restored by Adam Cuerden ,1893
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)
Ida B. Wells was a Chicago-based journalist and activist dedicated to women's rights and rights for all African Americans. Born in Mississippi, Wells first moved to Memphis where she began an anti-lynching crusade after a racist white mob murdered three African American businessmen who were also her friends. Recognizing the grave danger she faced by remaining in Memphis, Wells relocated to Chicago, a relative haven from which she could continue her work more brazenly. Using her skills as a researcher, writer, and orator, Wells helped bring national and international awareness to the horrors of lynching.