What does it mean that Chicago is both a historically Black city but also one of the most racially segregated ones? This presentation will engage with these topics and more.
Chicago is one of the cities with the largest Black population in the US. How did this occur? It begins with Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, a Black man of Haitian descent who established the first non-native settlement in the city around 1780.
After DuSable left Chicago in 1800, the Great Migration (1910-1970) brought Black people from the south and Caribbean to pick up his legacy. This migration was met with resistance thought, as redlining and restrictive covenants were used to keep Black people out of many areas. Additionally, sundown towns popped up around the city to prevent Black mobility. What does it mean that Chicago is both a historically Black city but also one of the most racially segregated ones? This presentation will engage with these topics and more.
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Courtney Pierre Joseph is an Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at Lake Forest College. Her specializations are in African American history and culture, Haiti and its diaspora, women and gender studies, and hip hop culture. Joseph earned her PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017. Dr. Joseph is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled DuSable’s Diaspora: Haiti, Blackness, and Belonging in Chicago.