Category Archives: Writing
Metea: “We will sell no more…”
A Potowatomi chief from near the Wabash River, Metea’s birth date is unknown, although it is believed that he fought for the British during the War of 1812 and died in 1827. In Smokestacks and Skyscrapers: An Anthology of Chicago … Continue reading
John Jones Crusades Against “Black Laws”
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
J.W.M. (Colored)
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