Renaissance in Black Metropolis Presentation
Welcome (again) to Bronzeville/Welcome to the
Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies which is the
historic Abraham Lincoln Center
I’ll be giving some brief background on the Abraham
Lincoln Center and its critical connection to the Black
Metropolis/Bronzeville community and then I’d like to
introduce you to our Director, Dr. Conrad Worrill.
My name is Zada Johnson, I was born and raised in the
Bronzeville Community—I presently live in the
Bronzeville home that my grandparents purchased
when they migrated to Chicago from Aberdeen
Mississippi in 1946-which is the house I grew up in. I’m
very happy to see so many educators present today
interested in teaching the history of the Bronzeville
community. I must say, that in my own experience as a
student, it wasn’t until my undergraduate studies at the
University of Chicago that I learned about the history of
my own neighborhood in a formal classroom setting.
After completing the my doctoral studies in
Anthropology at the University of Chicago, I was
fortunate enough to work in the Bronzeville community
as an Assistant Professor of Inner City Studies
Education at the Carruthers Center for Inner City
Studies. Here at the Carruthers Center, I am the faculty
coordinator of the Bronzeville Neighborhood Research
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Project, a collective of faculty, student and community
researchers interested in documenting the rich history
and culture of the Bronzeville community. Over the past
academic year, we have collaborated with academic
institutions and community organizations throughout
the city to provide workshops, neighborhood tours,
lectures and arts initiatives for our students, faculty and
community residents. (We have one of our Bronzeville
Neighborhood History Project researchers with us
today, Ms. Myiti Sengstacke a recent Masters Degree
graduate of the Carruthers Center for Inner City
Studies-Myiti is also a NEH Summer Institute Scholar,
she just recently returned from the Georgia Lowcountry
Summer Insititute—Myiti is also a descendent of Robert
Abbot-the founder of the Chicago Defender and has an
book coming out in September with the Images of
America series on the history of the Chicago Defender).
As you can probably tell, at the Carruthers Center, we
have both a professional and personal connection to the
Bronzeville community-which brings me to
myconversation about the historic Abraham Lincoln
Center where we are gathered today. Before it became
the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies in 1966,
this building was the original location of the Abraham
Lincoln Center, established in 1905 by the All Souls
Church (which was located across the street). The
building was designed by famed architect Frank Lloyed
Wright, who was a member of the church and nephew
of the church’s founder Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
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During the 1930s, the Abraham Lincoln Center became
a hub of African-American culture, hosting local and
national figures including W.E.B. DuBois and serving as
a site for writing workshops of Richard Wright. In the
handouts that we have for you today, I’ve included a
small gem that I located in my own research of Dubois
and the Abraham Lincoln Center—a 1934 Chicago
Defender Article which documents his speech on Jim
Crow segregation here in this very auditorium and the
controversy that it created—in case you guys don’t have
it, I’ve also made sure to pass along a copy of Robert
Bone’s “Richard Wright and the Chicago Renaissance”
article to Lisa which documents Wrights South Side
Writer’s group workshop here at the center which
included Margaret Walker and Arna Bontemps
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