Contentious Cosmopolitans: Black Public History and Civil Rights in Cold War Chicago, 1942-1972

Contentious Cosmopolitans: Black Public History and Civil Rights in Cold War Chicago, 1942-1972 by Ian Maxwell Rocksborough-Smith A Thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History, at the University of Toronto © Copyright by Ian Maxwell Rocksborough-Smith, 2014 Contentious Cosmopolitans: Black Public History and Civil Rights in Cold War Chicago, 1942-1972 Ian Maxwell Rocksborough-Smith, Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History, at the University of Toronto, 2014 This dissertation looks at how teachers, unionists, and cultural workers used black history to offer new ways of thinking about racial knowledge from a local level. Numerous efforts to promote and teach this history demonstrated how dissident cosmopolitan political currents from previous decades remained relevant to a vibrant and ideologically diffuse African American public sphere despite widespread Cold War dispersions, white supremacist reactions, and anticommunist repressions. My argument proceeds by demonstrating how these public history projects coalesced around a series of connected pedagogical endeavors. These endeavors included the work of school teachers on Chicago's South side who tried to advance curriculum reforms through World War II and afterwards, the work of packinghouse workers and other union-focused educators who used anti-discrimination campaigns to teach about the history of African Americans and Mexican Americans in the labor movement and to advance innovative models for worker education, and the activities of important cultural workers like Margaret and Charles Burroughs who politicized urban space and fought for greater recognition of black history in the public sphere through the advancement of their vision for a museum. Collectively, these projects expressed important ideas about race, citizenship, education and intellectual labors that engaged closely with the rapidly shifting terrains of mid-20th Century civil rights and international anti-colonialisms. Ultimately, this dissertation offers a social history about how cosmopolitan cultural work in public history and similar forms of knowledge production were at the intersections of political realities and lived experience in U.S. urban life. ii For my parents Brian and Jennifer and my brother Mike. iii Acknowledgements I have more people to thank than are listed here. Those who are listed deserve more praise and thanks than simply their names on these pages. This dissertation would not have been complete without the generous time and knowledge offered to me in my ten months of living in Chicago (2009/2010) by Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, Timuel D. Black, Bennett Johnson, Sterling Stuckey, Leslie O’Rear, Beatrice Young, and Clarice Durham. I would also not have finished this dissertation if not for the tremendous support, patience, resources, and direction offered by my supervisors at the University of Toronto. I owe a great debt to my senior supervisor, Rick Halpern, for his unwavering backing throughout my PhD studies and for directing me towards Chicago as a site for my research. To Dan Bender for his incisive comments on my writing at every stage and for pushing me when I needed it. To Michael Wayne for his sage advice and helping me burn off steam on the ice at Moss Park. Thanks also to Alisa Webb and Sylvie Murray at the University of the Fraser Valley. I owe deep respect and admiration to dear friends in Toronto, Nathan Cardon, Laura Butler, Lowell Heppner, Christopher Collins, Megan Hope. Nathan, you are a great historian and solid mensch, don’t ever forget it! Also, warm thanks to Will Riddell, Camille Bégin, Paul Lawrie, Jeremy Milloy, Jared Toney, Holly Karibo, Brandon King, Rowena Alphonso, John Dirks, Stuart Parker, and David Stiles - comments on chapters, advice, and camaraderie. I made many dear friends in Chicago who helped me navigate the archives and who directed me in ways that have had an unmistakable imprint and influence on my scholarship. Foremost, I would like to thank my Fulbright doctoral award supervisor at Northwestern University, Martha Biondi, for her generous advice and support at many stages of this project, especially near its inception. I would especially like to thank Erik Gellman, who generously shared countless conversations and sources with me about Chicago and African American iv history. I will always be grateful for his advice and friendship. I would also like to thank Antonio Lopez for his companionship in the archives and for being an even better friend, Karla Enriquez, William Adams, Keeanga Yahmatta-Taylor, and Lionel Kimble. Staff at many archives and libraries were extremely helpful throughout the making of this dissertation. In particular, I would like to thank Beverly Cook, Michael Flug, and Robert Miller at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at the Carter G. Woodson Public Library on Chicago’s Southside. Your patience with my silly questions and for enduring my presence in your research room for so many hours demonstrated how your archive is one of the best (with some of the richest materials to work with) in the country. Also, thanks to Bea Julian at the DuSable Museum for answering my questions as the museum underwent renovations. I would also like to thank the administrators of important funding bodies. Notably Michelle Emond at Canada/U.S. Fulbright and Tamar Evangelista-Dougherty at the BMRC in Chicago. My debts to close family and friends are too many to count. I would not be here today if not for their love and support. In particular, I thank my parents, Brian and Jennifer, and my brother Michael. I will never be able to express how you’ve helped me through some very trying times. The same goes for Chris Miki and Brenda Ostonal, Owen James, Kevin Tilley, Matt Lum, David Baird, Phillip Gander and Willow Fuchs, Charlie Demers, and Cara Ng, Jack O’Dell and Jane Power, Karen Ferguson, John Munro and Jacqueline Maloney, Rachel Delph, and Kristin Rummell. To Farah Moosa and family if you ever read this, I know you’ve all been through more than anyone should have to handle and I apologize for my part in that. Thank you for the time we spent together. Any errors below are mine and mine alone. v Table of Contents 1. Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...iv 2. List of figures……………………………………………………………………………vii 3. Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………..viii 4. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………1 5. Chapter One: Imagining a Black Museum in Cold War Chicago……………………...27 6. Chapter Two: “We Had the Models”: Southside School Teachers, Curriculum Reforms, and Black Public History in the Midwest Metropolis……………………………………69 7. Chapter Three: Black Chicago Cultural Workers, Racial Knowledge, and the United Packinghouse Workers Association…………………………………………………….140 8. Chapter Four: “Under the Banner of ‘the History and Heritage’”: Nationalism and The Afro-American Heritage Association…………………………………………………..212 9. Chapter Five: The DuSable Museum of African American History in the Black Power Era: The Washington Park Relocation………………………………………………….254 10. Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………..317 10. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...322 vi List of Figures Figure 1: 3806 South Michigan Avenue, the original home of the Ebony/DuSable Museum located in historic Bronzeville (circa late 1960s) ……………………………………………72 Figure 2: Charles and Margaret Burroughs (circa 1960s) at the original location for the Ebony/DuSable Museum of African American History. The 3806 South Michigan Avenue Coach house doubled as their home and is located in a cultural hub of Bronzeville that featured the Southside Community Art Center across the Street. …………………………………....73 Figure 3: Mural by William Walker, “History of the Packinghouse Worker,” 1974. 4859 South Wabash, Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Farah Moosa (2010)……………………………………..207 Figure 4: The DuSable Museum of African American History, at its current location in Washington Park, 740 E 56th Pl, Chicago, Illinois. Photo: Ian Rocksborough-Smith (2009)…305 vii Abbreviations AAAM – Association of African American Museums AAHA – Afro-American Heritage Association A/D – Anti-Discrimination Committee (UPWA) AFL – American Federation of Labor AFT – American Federation of Teachers AMSAC – American Society of African Culture ASNLH – Association for the Study of Negro Life and History BAM – Black Arts Movement BPP - Black Panther Party CAA – Council of African Affairs CCCO – Coordinating Council of Community Organizations CEMV – Committee to End Mob Violence CFM – Chicago Freedom Movement CIO – Congress of Industrial Organizations CORE – Congress of Racial Equality CPUSA – Communist Party of the United States CRC – Civil Rights Congress CTU - Chicago Teachers Union FEPC – Fair Employment Practices Commission HUAC – House of Un-American Activities Commission ILWU – International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union IWO – International Workers Order MWM – March on Washington Movement NACW – National Association of Colored Women NCNW – National Council of Negro Women viii NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NEH – National Endowment of the Humanities NNC – National Negro Congress NNLC – National Negro Labor Council NNMHF – National Negro Museum and Historical Foundation NOI – Nation of Islam OBAC – Organization of Black American Culture PCH – Parkway Community House PLC - Progressive Librarians Council PP – Progressive Party PTA –Parent Teachers Association (Chicago African American) PWC – Packinghouse

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