BLACK HISTORY
Black History Month Still Very Much Needed By Glenn Reedus When Negro History Week was established 86 years ago, its founder, Dr. Carter G. Woodson had hoped that one day there would be no need for such an observance. Dr. Carol Adams, executive director of the DuSable Museum of African American History, said Negro History Week, which has morphed into Black History Month is needed now as much as ever. “Initially it was brought out to highlight achievements, to use them to inspire new generations and inform them and teach the truth. Black History Month is as important now as it ever was,” Adams added. Those were the sentiments expressed in a 1985 interview with noted historian Dr. John Hope Franklin. He said then that although the history books now include more information about Black people, the need for a special observance of Black achievement has not diminished. Adams described African American history as “the U.S.’s history
and the world’s history. But because we are still noticeably absent from those (school) texts there is a need to fight for inclusion. We still need to unashamedly call attention to our contributions to the world.” Negro History Week, founded in 1926, was elevated to Black History Month in 1976 and the activities and observances have increased but in the 1985 interview Franklin said it had not had the desired effect on persons who are not Black. “That would be too flattering to this country to say that it had,” Franklin told a Black reporter at the Toledo Blade newspaper. “It would be nice if I could say that, but I think white Americans hear all of this, but I am not sure it carries over.” Since its inception, much of the focus of Black History Month has been about recording who was the first Black person to accomplish something, “but it goes way beyond recognition for the first this or the first that” Adams said. She added it is critical to acknowledge and celebrate subsequent achievements.
Dr. Carol Adams Adams continued, “Our history is the fabric of society, our role in building and sustaining this country. We are still the prevailing influence of culture, whether it is the music or the language— all of these things are influenced by us, whether they will admit it or not. Like Franklin and other proponents of expanding Black History Month, Adams believes there is a greater role schools can play. In
Chicago, administrators and the board of education have implemented a curriculum that keeps Black history in front of K-11 students throughout the year. Marty Moe, a social science lead at CPS, said the last few years CPS has been working on a social science framework that makes “learning as inclusive as possible” Moe explained the district uses “guiding questions” to facilitate learning about subjects such as
Black history by having teachers help students explore all aspects of a subject. He said a subject such as the Civil Rights Movement will encompass Black History Month. Adams said not promoting Black history would be a mistake. “We invented a lot of things past the stop light. Our children need to know that so they know who they can be.” She added that chronicling our achievements sends the signal to young people that accomplishments are part of who we are and these achievements are not exceptions. She said that Black people must demand inclusion and not wait for it to be given “Somehow we have got out of the demand business. We have to keep doing that otherwise it will be one step forward and two steps back. “It is incumbent upon us to use whatever means are at our disposal to make sure our story is told early and told often just like other cultures do. The dominant Americans make sure they still promote myths of American equality. They tell the story of their triumphs and we can do no less.”
Black folks reminisce about the ‘old’ Chicago By Wendell Hutson There was a time when Black people would not travel east of Cottage Grove Avenue on the South Side for fear of being harassed by whites and possibly detained by the Chicago police. There was a time when working at a steel mill was among the best jobs for someone Black. And there was a time when Blacks could only go to one South Side hospital for medical treatment. Those days are long gone but not the memories, good and bad, still held by longtime, Black Chicagoans like Timuel Black, Jr.
“White folks knew the few Blacks who lived in Hyde Park, which had bordered the cut off point for us darker skin Blacks,” Black told the Crusader. “Most of those Blacks were light skin so they (whites) didn’t mind them but if you were not light skin, look out. This type of living is what we called ‘restrictive covenant’ back then.” The noted historian, who unsuccessfully ran for alderman of the Fourth Ward in 1963, explained what restrictive covenant meant to Blacks who migrated to Chicago from the south. “Unlike down south in Chicago if you were Black you could not
TRAVELING BY TRAIN was the primary method of transportation for Black Chicagoans during the 1940s era and this Metra train station at 12th Street and Michigan Avenue was considered a safe haven for Blacks. search for work elsewhere,” explained Black. “Some of it was fear. We knew to stay to our own kind and not mingle outside the community. But as time went on things started to change and so did the quality of life for Black folks.” Dr. Daniel Hale Williams a Black surgeon, founded the former Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School, 500 E. 51st St., in 1891. It is a place Black will never forget. “Both my children were born there (at Provident) as were most Black folks back then. That was really the only place (at least on the South Side) that would treat
The 84 year-old South Side native moved to Chicago with his parents from Birmingham, Ala. in 1919 at age one.
spit on the sidewalk, walk in the grass and you better not talk too loud,” he recalled. “Those were the things told to Black folks who
came to the north from the south.” Black would be in college before he got his first job outside the Black community. The military veteran graduated from DuSable High School on the South Side and earned his bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. “I was already lucky enough to find a job working for someone Black. I worked as a paperboy for the Chicago Defender newspaper and later worked for the old (Black-owned) Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company, so there was never any need to
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Blacks Must control their own coMMunity
NOTED LOCAL HISTORIAN and professor Timuel Black recalled a Chicago that was much less accommodating for Black people, especially in the early part of the 20th Century.
Black patients,” he said. But Black is not alone when it comes to the good old days. Traveling by train for Blacks was also a challenge during the era between 1920 and 1960, said Hattie Nelson, 86, who moved to Chicago in 1934 from New Orleans. “I remember Blacks had to get off the train (which was not called Metra) at the train stop at 12th and Michigan even though there were stops at 47th and 55th streets,” explained Nelson. “It was safer to get off at 12th Street because a lot of Blacks lived near(Continued on page 3) The Chicago Crusader
BLACK HISTORY
Provident Hospital once a Black gem By Wendell Hutson The first Black-owned hospital in Chicago is standing today despite losing its Black status when ownership changed in 1993. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a Black surgeon, founded Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School, 501 E. 51st St., in 1891. Up until its brief closing in 1987 it was considered a gem for the Black community, said Timuel Black, the unofficial historian for the Bronzeville community on the South Side where the hospital is located. “Both my children were born there (at Provident) as were most Black folks back then. That was really the only place (at least on the South Side) that would treat Black patients,” he said. “Most Black folks did not have insurance and most hospitals did not treat Blacks so Provident was about the only place we could go to get medical treatment. Much of that still holds true today minus the fact that Blacks can receive medical care at any hospital now.” Eighteen years ago the name
changed to Provident Hospital of Cook County after being reopened as part of the county’s health system. Black said the medical institution still has a majority Black patient base and is still seen as the place of last resort for uninsured and poor Blacks. “Even though the county continues to reduce patient services at Provident (due to budget constraints) it serves a purpose for Black folks,” he added. “Especially for those who do not drive and cannot travel to Stroger Hospital on the West Side.” Many of the surgeons at Provident are no longer Black. But Dr. Clifford Crawford, a Black general surgeon, who has been at Provident since 1979, said most of the nurses are still predominately Black. “The patients here might be 100 percent Black but the hospital is open to all races,” Crawford, 66, told the Crusader. “Back in the day, Provident was a full-service community hospital. Today it is mostly an outpatient facility with 25 inpatients beds available on average.” Crawford added that the new
Black folks reminisce about the ‘old’ Chicago (Continued from page 2) by at that time. So the 12th Street finding a job than you did staying train stop, which is now a stop for out the way of white folks,” Metra and other commuter Phillips said. “I am glad I was born trains, became known back then back then because it helps me apas the ‘Black stop.’ A place of preciate what freedoms we as Blacks have now. I only wish the refugee.” Otis Phillips, 89, moved to younger generation knew how Chicago in 1951 from Memphis much we have accomplished as a and said he had a ‘kitchenette’ (a race. If they did perhaps they would not take things like voting for granted.” And Lee Black, 84, left the comfortable surroundings of Coldwater, Mississippi to come to Chicago in 1948 with her two small children after a failed marriage. “My father drove us to the bus stop and wished us well. I was married at the time with two daughters but things were not working out with my (late) husband, so I left,” the great grandmother of 10 told the Crusader. “When I arrived in Chicago I had $2,000 so I did not work immediately. But eventually I started working as a waitress and GONE BUT NOT FOR- then at a cleaners to support my GOTTEN are the hard days two children.” But on April 4, 1968, the day Dr. for Black folks, said Lee Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, Black, who moved to Chicago “Black folks lost their minds in from Coldwater, Miss. in Chicago,” she recalls. 1948. Riots broke out all over the city, one room apartment) on 23rd she added, and Blacks were Street and Wabash Avenue in 1951 screaming mad, turning cars over, and paid $6 a month for rent. throwing bricks through people’s “It did not take much to survive windows and setting fire to everyback then. You had an easier time thing,” she added. The Chicago Crusader
BLACK DOCTORS AND INTERNS at Provident Hospital and Training School in 1940 make their rounds checking on patients. Provident is open for minor surgeries and short stays and not for those who may need a specialist or long-term stay (more than a week). “The institution provides value to the community,” explained Crawford. “In its glory days it provided the Black community access to healthcare, and it would be a shame if the hospital should ever close.” Lee Black, 83, who migrated to Chicago from Coldwater, Miss. in 1948, went to Provident when she was pregnant. “I thought I was going into labor. I was walking home from the grocery store and fell to the ground,” she recalled. “A white policeman was driving past and saw me on the ground. He was a nice white man because he drove me to Provident Hospital.” It turned out to be a false alarm and she was discharged and walked home from the hospital. The hospital first earned a place in history when Williams conducted the first successful openheart surgery there. But to know where Provident is going, Dee Clayton, a spokes-
woman for Provident Hospital of Cook County, said it is important that people know how the hospital came to exist. In 1889, every Chicago nursing school had denied Emma Reynolds, a Black woman, who aspired to be a nurse. Her brother, the Rev. Louis Reynolds, pastor of St. Stephen’s African Methodist Episcopal Church on the West Side, approached Williams for help. Unable to influence the existing schools, both Reynolds and Williams decided to launch a new nursing school for Black women. In 1890, Williams consulted with a group of Black ministers, physicians and businessmen to explore establishing a nurse-training facility and hospital. There were only a few Black physicians in Chicago at this time, and all had limited or no hospital privileges. And with the help of a few prominent white citizens as well as many Black individuals and organizations, donations were collected. From there rallies took place on the South and West Sides. One of the most important early contributions came in 1890
when a Black pastor, the Rev. Jenkins Jones, secured a commitment from the former Armour Meat Packing Company for the down payment on a three-story brick house at 29th Street and Dearborn Avenue. This building, with 12 beds, became the first Provident Hospital. The hospital was also previously located at 36th Street and Dearborn Avenue in 1898 and 426 E. 51st St. in 1933 before finally moving to its current location. Clayton said with its alliance with Cook County Provident is able to be a viable medical institution to those who are with limited options. “As a community hospital, Provident takes seriously its goal of partnering with the community for better health. It is a relationship consistent with Provident’s goal of being part of an extended family of care,” she said. “As a member of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, Provident is able to combine the personal care of a community hospital with the diverse, specialized services of a nationally-recognized healthcare system.”
CHICAGO’S PROVIDENT HOSPITAL was the primary training school for Black women seeking to be nurses including this graduating class from 1900.
Blacks Must control their own coMMunity
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The Chicago Crusader