Bronzeville

Jazz great Louis Armstrong, civil rights leader Ida B. Wells, pilot Bessie Coleman and countless others gave this South Side neighborhood a central role in African-American history and culture. Bronzeville was the promised land for blacks who participated in The Great Migration in the 1910s and 1920s, fleeing poverty and oppression in the South.

Today it forms the Bronzeville-Black Metropolis Historic District with nine historic buildings, most of them in the vicinity of 35th and State streets. Among them are the art deco home of the former Chicago Bee newspaper, now a Chicago Public Library branch; the Eighth Regiment Armory, now a Chicago Public Schools military academy; and the Wabash Avenue YMCA, former home of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, one of the first groups devoted to African-American studies.

Bronzeville is also a treasure trove of cultural experiences with many art galleries, restaurants, and bookstores. Most recently on the scene in Bronzeville is Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles, a soul food-inspired joint that serves up its popular chicken and waffle combination.

Located throughout the city, Chicago Tribute Markers of Distinction celebrate notable Chicagoans by marking the places where they lived or worked. Fourteen markers in Bronzeville commemorate Andrew “Rube Foster, Bessie Coleman, Daniel H. Burnham, Daniel Hale Williams, Hannah Greenbaum Solomon, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Louis Armstrong, the Marx Brothers, Nat “King” Cole, Oscar DePriest, Richard Wright, Robert S. Abbott, Stephen Douglas and Vivian Harsh.

Read, Learn, Discover at the Chicago Public Library. Search programming and event information at your neighborhood branch (Hall, Chicago Bee).