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DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis

Daniel Hautzinger
(Library of Congress)
(Library of Congress)

Thursday, February 8 at 8:30 pm, the WTTW-produced DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis receives a rebroadcast in honor of Black History Month. The documentary celebrates the achivements and relates the history of Chicago's African-American community, from the establishment in 1779 of the first permanent settlement at Chicago by Jean Baptiste DuSable, a Haitian-born man of African descent, to the 2008 election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, and features interviews with such eminences as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, Chaka Khan, Carol Moseley Braun, and Lalah Hathaway. (Dr. Christoper Reed, who spoke with Playlist about African Americans in Chicago during the Civil War, is also interviewed.)

More interviews, photos, history, and more can be found on the accompanying website. You can learn about the Wall of Respect, a South Side mural painted 50 years ago; discover the birth of gospel music; hear part of an episode of Destination Freedom, a radio drama spotlighting important African Americans; explore images of the city's African American community in the 1970s by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John White, and much more. 

Both the show and the website are divided into four sections: Early Chicago (1779-1918), From Riots to Renaissance (1919-1940), Power, Politics, & Pride (1941-1968), and Achieving the Dream (1969-2008).