Exhibits

Invisible to Whom? Selections from the Robert A. Sengstacke Archive | Web Exhibit

Invisible to Whom? challenges the notion of Black “invisibility,” embracing the power of self-representation. Celebrating Robert A. "Bobby" Sengstacke’s decades-long work documenting Chicago’s Black community, it highlights his deep compassion and commitment to authentic storytelling. Through his lens, we witness Black people seeing and affirming one another, reclaiming their narratives beyond the white gaze and reimagining visibility in a racially stratified world. This web exhibition accompanies an installation of Sengstacke's photographs at the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library, on view until June 30th 2025.

Curated by the BMRC's Black Visual Arts Researcher, Rashieda Witter. This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, Myiti Sengstacke-Rice, Chicago Defender Charities, UChicago’s Visual Resources Center and the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

BLACK DESIGNERS: SHAPING THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

A small-scale online exhibit by the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, presenting a select set of highlights from collections held at some of our member institutions. Many more artists, designers, illustrators, cartoonists, architects, artist organizations, and galleries are documented in these archives at museums, university archives and special collections, libraries, and community organizations around the Chicago area.

Get a taste of the creative work by Black designers working in various media preserved in nearby archives! Discover more through the BMRC Archives Portal.

15TH ANNIVERSARY of the BMRC - WEB EXHIBIT

In 2021, the BMRC celebrated its 15th anniversary! This exhibit documents the origins of the BMRC, its efforts to aid discoverability and access to Black historical collections, and the consortium’s flagship Summer Short-term Fellowship and Archie Motley Archival Internship programs.

The exhibition, curated by BMRC Executive Director, Marcia Walker-McWilliams was set to unveil as a physical exhibition open to the public. However, due to Covid-19 precautions, we are only able to offer a web exhibit at this time. [NOTE: there are plans to mount the exhibit again soon!]

Special thanks to exhibition designer, Chelsea Kauffman of the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at the University of Chicago and to Dan Meyer and Patti Gibbons of SCRC for their contributions.

To access the web exhibit, click the link to view it on the University of Chicago Library's website.

BLACK ORGANIZING IN PRE-CIVIL WAR ILLINOIS: CREATING COMMUNITY, DEMANDING JUSTICE

New web exhibit from Northwestern University on early history of Black community building and activism, with a Chicago section called “Making Black Chicago,” covering Black migration into the city, early Black churches, schools/education, and the Underground Railroad. The exhibit was built by a team of Northwestern University students and staff led by Professor of History Kate Masur, as part of the larger Colored Conventions project of the Center for Black Digital Research at Penn State University.

Explore more stories through the 25 individual profiles, including well-known Black Chicagoans John and Mary Richardson Jones as well as other less known yet important figures, like Henry O. Wagoner and Mary Mann, the first African American to graduate from public high school and become a public school teacher (and principal) in in the city. The exhibit also tells the story of the first statewide Black political convention in Illinois, which met in Chicago in October 1853. Read more about the project on NU's site.

REVEREND JOSEPH H. JACKSON: CIVIL RIGHTS THROUGH LAW AND ORDER

The Chicago History Museum has several Google Arts & Culture exhibits that focus on various aspects of Black history, including an exhibition on Chicago pastor Reverend Joseph H. Jackson, who rose to prominence in the early 20th century fighting for education, housing and economic and political equity.

"Reverend J. H. Jackson remains a key figure in the narrative of the civil rights movement. The arguments that Jackson made are still discussed in the struggle for Black liberation today."

Northwestern Community Ensemble – Black Sacred Music and the College Campus

The Northwestern Community Ensemble (NCE) is a student choral group established in the Black Christian music tradition. It was founded on May 8, 1971, to provide students with a spiritual outlet, to sing Black sacred music, and to foster community. The online exhibit includes a short documentary, “The Absence of Music: Celebrating 50 Years of Northwestern Community Ensemble,” that provides an overview of the origins of the choir as told by the founders and early members, in addition to a wealth of photographs and audio oral histories.

There are archival materials available in the Special Collections -- see Box 2 in the Records of the Department of African American Student Affairs, and there is a set of images in Northwestern's Digital Collections: Northwestern Community Ensemble (NCE).

THEY DEMANDED COURAGEOUSLY: THE 1968 NORTHWESTERN BURSAR'S OFFICE TAKEOVER

On April 22, 1968, members of Black student organizations, For Members Only (FMO) and Afro-American Student Union (AASU), presented a list of demands to the Northwestern University administration in response to discriminatory campus policies and practices and to heighten the awareness of Black student’s experiences of racial insensitivity on campus.

They Demanded Courageously: The 1968 Northwestern Bursar’s Office Takeover is an online exhibit that tells the story of this transformative moment in Northwestern University history. It includes an overview of the trajectory of the reasons students of For Members Only (FMO) and Afro-American Student Union (AASU) presented demands to the University, to the legacy of the Takeover. It also features key documents found at Northwestern University Archives, a timeline, participant biographies, photographs, and bibliographic resources. All images and documents featured on this site live at Northwestern University Archives.

View the full digital exhibit on Northwestern University's website, with timelines, history, photographs, video and more.

THING: SHE KNOWS WHO SHE IS

Exhibit in Google Arts & Culture, by Chicago History Museum, featuring materials from the Thing magazine collection. Thing magazine was founded as a platform for black LGBTQ+ life. As such, its issues are full of art, house music, interviews, commentary, small and large features, recurring columns, poetry, and articles centering around black culture, LGBTQ+ culture, HIV/AIDS activism, drag, camp, and more.

Image credit: Inside Cover of Thing no. 1, Thing Publishing, 1989-11, From the collection of: Chicago History Museum shows a Simone Bouyer ink drawing of Ken Hare with an expression of surprise.

CONCERT IS POWER - PART 1: CHICAGO'S FIRST FREE BLACK GENERATION

Another of Chicago History Museum's Google Arts & Culture stories. When you're done with Part 1, check out Part 2 about Antebellum Free Black Movements in Chicago!

The image here is of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable (1930 by photographer Raoul Varin, no known copyright).

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/jean-baptiste-pointe-du-sable-raoul-varin-paris/ugHSJ5__mXT36w (IMAGE LINK)

Explore more stories from CHM's collections on the Google Arts & Culture site.

Voices: Cedarleaf Civil Rights March Recalled

A 2016 article by Diana Trautwein providing historical context for the Douglas Cedarleaf papers at North Park University. Pastor Douglas Cedarleaf was a religious and community leader passionate about social justice. He served in the West Town neighborhood at the Erie Chapel Presbyterian Church and the Erie Neighborhood House.