It was a great day for Chicagoans on the Magnificent Mile as city officials, dignitaries, Haitian Americans and Chicagoans all rejoiced in celebration at the historical unveiling and dedication of a bronze bust of the founder of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable. Flags were waved, songs were sung, speeches were given and tears flowed, as the bust of DuSable was unveiled to a cheering crowd on Saturday, October 17, 2009. The bust is located on the Michigan Avenue Bridge just north of the Tribune Tower. Historians have noted this site as the area that the fur trapper and trader, DuSable first settled and built his home in Chicago. “The first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, who was a man of mixed African and European heritage born in Saint-Domingue (modern day Haiti-though more careful historical study has revealed that he had no Haitian origins at all and was born of a French Canadian father and Free African mother in Toronto), arrived in the 1770s, married a Pottawatomie woman, and founded the first trading post in the area which is now Chicago, Illinois, in recognition whereof he was declared the Founder of Chicago by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago on October 26, 1968--all because of the efforts of the Du Sable Memorial Society. Prior to the unveiling of this bust, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable was recognized by the building of the DuSable Vocational High School, an effort lead by the Du Sable Memorial Society and concerned pastors and political leaders, such as the late Congressman William L. Dawson, the late Alderman Leon Du Pres, Dr. Harvey E. Walden, Sr. of Grant Memorial AME Church, the late Dr. Joseph H. Jackson of the Olivet Baptist Church, the late Dr. Morris Tynes of the Monumental Baptist Church and the late Dr. Reynolds of the Grace Presbyterian Church. Later Dr. Margaret Burroughs developed the Du Sable Museum of African American history in her spacious mansion on Michigan Avenue. The Du Sable Museum now consists of three contemporay exhibit halls, located on its own private campus in the southern half of Washington Park. The day was of special significance to the eighty-nine year old, Bessie Neal, former president of The DuSable League. Mrs. Neal and the DuSable League (a group of former Chicago teachers formerly known as the DuSable Memorial Society) have worked tirelessly for many decades advocating for the formal recognition of DuSable as the founder of Chicago and for a statue to be placed in his honor in Chicago. I am sharing this article to honor the memory and efforts of Mrs. Bessie Neal, a life-long friend of my mothers and neighbor to us in the old Forestville Township of the Kenwood Community of Chicago, on historic Vincennes Avenue (Route 1, a trail which originally began on the parade grounds of Fort Dearborn). While many dignitaries lined up for photos back in 1997 when this bust was dedicated, it reminded me of the story of “The Little Red Hen.” By then, Mrs. Bessie Neal, a life-long member of Ingleside-Whitfield United Methodist Church was the only surviving member of her original group. She was a fierce contender for the educational and social uplift of our people, and knew that giving Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable his rightful place in Chicago and hence American history would go a long way toward that goal. Tragically so few, even in Chicago’s Black American African Community, are aware that long before the American Revolution, this French African Canadian had settled on the gateway to the western waterways, Chicago, Illinois.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:35:47 +0000
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