City To Honor Historian, Civil Rights Activist Timuel Black With Honorary Street Designation

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 18, 2013 2:45PM

Timuel Black in an undated photo. (Photo credit: University of Illinois-Chicago's Chicago Urban League collections.)

Chicago will honor one of the city’s greatest living civil rights icons this weekend. Timuel L. Black, Professor Emeritus of the City Colleges of Chicago, will receive the first Champion of Freedom Award at the 27th annual Interfaith Breakfast Friday and will receive an honorary street designation Saturday.

Black was born in Birmingham, Ala. In 1918 but has lived in Bronzeville, near DuSable High School, since 1919; he was one of DuSable’s first graduates. He served in World War II and later graduated from Roosevelt University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. He taught history at a variety of Chicago high schools and colleges. In 1960, Black helped organize the “wade-in” at Rainbow Beach to protest the segregated nature of Chicago’s beaches at the time and was organized the Chicago contingent for the 1963 March on Washington, bringing two “Freedom Trains” to DC.

Black was one of the catalysts in the voter registration campaign that led to Harold Washington’s successful candidacy for mayor and has a relationship with President Barack Obama that dates back to the early 90s. His two books of oral history Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Black Migration and Bridges of Memory 2: Chicago’s Second Generation of Black Migration are required reading for anyone interested in Chicago history and especially its African-American history.

Ald. Pat Dowell and Rev. B. Herbert Martin will unveil the honorary street sign for Black 1 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Wabash Avenue and 50th Street.