Exploring the history of Bronzeville

Hi everyone, Liane here.

Last Friday during core course, we were given a tour of the Bronzeville Neighborhood, home to one of our professors at ACM. It was fascinating to learn about all of the history held within this community. To further explore Bronzeville, I paid a visit to an exhibit in Hyde Park's Art Center called Topographical Depictions of the Bronzeville Renaissance.

The exhibit was created by Samantha Hill, who compiled materials donated from the residents of Bronzeville to form an interactive map installation. Visitors are welcomed to share their own stories which are envoked by the images they see.

The exhibit Topographical Depictions of the Bronzeville Renaissance at The Hyde Park Art Center.

Through the images and stories presented to me on Friday's tour and from this art exhibit I have seen the magnificent changes that have taken place here.

Here are two maps to give you an idea of the location of Bronzeville within the scope of Chicago.
The map on the left shows the city of Chicago with Bronzeville highlighted. The map on the right demonstrates just how large this community is!

Now for a brief history lesson! Bronzeville was known as the "black metropolis," as the area attracted many African Americans to settle during the waves of The Great Migration. Bronzeville attracted a wide array of people; including businessmen, artists, musicians, politicians, and numerous famous historical figures such as Ida B. Wells!

The Bronzeville Renaissance occurred from the 1930's through the 1950's. Below are some images of the exhibit at the Hyde Park Art Center from this era of Bronzeville's history.

 The Bronzeville Renaissance coincided with the great era of Jazz...

On our tour of the neighborhood we were taken to an Ace Hardware store. This may seem a peculiar place to visit on a tour, but there is rich Jazz history behind this store's walls. The Ace Hardware store of Bronzeville is the former Sunset Café jazz club which Louis Armstrong was the main act.

Image of the original Sunset Café in the storefront windows of Bronzeville's Ace Hardware.

The Sunset Café's stage backdrop.


All that remains of the jazz history are photographs, and the paintings on the walls which used to be the backdrop for the stage.

The Sunset Cafe's stage backdrop.