Category Archives: Social Change

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John Jones Crusades Against “Black Laws”

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Richard Guzman

Born in Greene County, North Carolina, around 1816, John Jones moved to Chicago in 1845 and established a tailor shop which had many wealthy, white Chicago customers.  By the 1870’s it made him perhaps the wealthiest black in the Midwest.  … Continue reading →

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J.W.M. (Colored)

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Richard Guzman

I wanted desperately to start my book Black Writing from Chicago: In the World, Not of It? with something from John Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, the black man famed for being Chicago’s founder—that is, the first, permanent, non-Native American settler.  … Continue reading →

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Useni Eugene Perkins: The Artist as Social Activist

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Richard Guzman

In his introduction to Perkins’ latest book Images and Memories: Selected Poems, Haki Madhubuti says that, “Of the Chicago writers to emerge out of the dynamic sixties, [Perkins] is one of the few who embraced the mission of cultural worker/artist/activist.”  … Continue reading →

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