"Renaissance in the Black Metropolis: Chicago, 1930-1950" is a 2012 Landmarks of American History and Culture program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities

Welcome to mid-century Chicago in the Black Metropolis, where the culture and politics are as rich as the pockets are poor. Among the residents of this segregated section of the city lived a generation of young men and women that attended schools and churches, bought goods, used dentists and doctors, embraced music, visited libraries, and sought work. Despite the Great Depression within the confines of the Black Metropolis and all the challenges that accompany inequality, these young adults formed a cultural political movement whose legacy lives on today. They organized unions and political organizations, created art and literature, and published newspapers, academic studies, and literary journals. Some of them—Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, Charles White, Margaret Burroughs, Thomas Dorsey, John Johnson, and Charles Hayes—matured to become major artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and political and union leaders of the 20th century. They gave the world gospel, jazz, rhythm and blues, classic works of literature, the Chicago Defender, Johnson Publishing, the DuSable Museum, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union and the United Packinghouse Workers of America. This era of ferment in the Black Metropolis of Chicago is now referred to as the “Black Chicago Renaissance.”

Join us in Chicago for a rich multidisciplinary discovery of the culture and politics of this new generation whose creative work and ideas transformed American society. We will spend our days in the Black Metropolis, learning together in the actual historic sites and visiting many more. If you know only the Harlem Renaissance, then you will be delighted to find out how Chicago succeeded as a fully realized cultural political movement led for and by African-Americans.

We invite you to apply for one of the two sessions of "Renaissance in the Black Metropolis: Chicago, 1930-1950"

• Session One: July 8 – July 14, 2012
• Session Two: July 22 – July 28, 2012

The "Renaissance in the Black Metropolis" opens new ways to look at key periods in the mid-20^th century: the Great Migration, the Great Depression and the New Deal, World War Two, the beginnings of the Cold War, the new consumerism, and the civil rights movement. Artistically, it reflects the making of the modern sensibility in everything from popular music to the Black Arts Movement. In the heart of the Midwest, we’ll explore not only the specific story of the Black Chicago Renaissance, but we’ll find America’s story too.

For more information, please contact Lisa Oppenheim at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Participating Institutions: National Endowment for the Humanities, Chicago Metro History Education Center, and in conjunction with Roosevelt University.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.