PREMIERE ISSUE the VOICE THE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF PRESERVATION CHICAGO VOLUME No 1 - ISSUE No 1 SUMMER 2006 PRESERVINGPRESERVATION THE CHICAGO LEGACY www.preservationchicago.org OF EMMETT TILL VOICEthe PRESERVATION CHICAGO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT 1016 North Oakley Boulevard SUMMER 2006 Chicago, IL 60622 Communication is the key to building a successful organization Since we started Preservation Chicago back in 00, we have always tried 2006 Board of Directors our best to keep in regular contact with our loyal membership in order to Jonathan Fine President keep you informed of our activities, as well as to exchange information about Michael Moran Vice President important preservation issues. As a 00% volunteer organization, consistently maintaining this goal has often been a challenge. Marcia Matavulj Treasurer Brooke Williams Secretary However, because of their total commitment to the cause of historic preservation, Laura Marier Exec. Comm. the talent, energy, and enthusiasm contributed by the Preservation Chicago board of directors allows us to accomplish things that would otherwise be Bill Neuendorf Exec. Comm. impossible. Craig Norris Exec. Comm. The big news, of course, is the new and improved Preservation Chicago Kimberlee Smith Exec. Comm. web site (www.preservationchicago.org). Launched on November 9, 005 in conjunction with our annual Chicago 7 press conference, the new site provides Bob Clarke Board a dramatic increase in information and includes numerous other improvements and conveniences. Sandy Gartler Board Eugene Kaminski Board New features of the site include a monthly “Featured Building”, an “At Risk” Vana Kikos Board section about our ongoing preservation activities, a section on our current “Policy Initiatives”, “Success Stories” which tells of recent preservation wins, Kim Mickelson Board and much, much more. But the best part is that you can now download a Nina Newhouser Board membership application, or a membership renewal form, directly off the web Stacey Pfingsten Board site. And you can even pay by credit card! We are still tweaking the web site and adding new information monthly, so please try to visit it regularly. Mark Runge Board Sharon Russell Board The second initiative is, of course, this newsletter. We are launching it as the Summer 006 edition and plan to go to print quarterly. Although still a work Andy Schcolnik Board in progress, we welcome input from our general membership, or others, in Brad Suster Board order to make The Voice and web site the best and most informative as they can be. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact us at info@ Contact us: preservationchicago.org. www.preservationchicago.org In addition to the web site and newsletter, we are also building a brand new ph: 773.489.0300 membership database, so look to see more emails from us in the future. fax: 773.489.0874 email: [email protected] Finally, Preservation Chicago is a private not-for-profit corporation and we rely on the generous contributions of our members in order to run the organization. So, when you receive your renewal notice in the mail, prompt payment would be greatly appreciated. GRAPHIC DESIGN: Sandy Gartler Hope you enjoy The Voice! PHOTO CREDITS: Cover: Emmett Till 955 funeral at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ courtesy of The Chicago Defender archive page 3: Courtesy of The Chicago Defender archive page 4: Courtesy of Sandy Gartler page 5: Courtesy of Pete DeCamp page 6: Courtesy of Sandy Gartler page 7: Courtesy of Larry Lubliner page 8: Courtesy of Bobbie Burgess page 0: Courtesy of Sandy Gartler Jonathan Fine © 006 PRESERVATION CHICAGO All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is strictly prohibited. President, Preservation Chicago PRESERVATION CHICAGO www.preservationchicago.org bloated body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River, the fan of a cotton gin tied to his body with barbed wire. At the insistence of Mamie Till Bradley, and over the objections of Mississippi authorities, the body was shipped back to Chicago for an open casket funeral. Mrs. Till Bradley was later quoted as saying that she wanted the world to see what had been done to Emmett. In early September of 955, as many as 00,000 people had gathered at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, located at 40 S. State Street, to pay their respects. Nurses were stationed at the front of the casket because so many people became ill at the site of Emmett’s tattered body. LANDMARK HONORS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS Photographs of the funeral were published in Jet Magazine, SITE, ROBERTS TEMPLE CHURCH OF GOD and the story was covered in the Chicago Defender, as well as the national mainstream press. These images of the IN CHRIST funeral were telegraphed across the world, bringing the brutality and inequities of racial segregation to an otherwise The Montgomery bus boycott, the integration of Little disengaged populace. Rock Central High School, Bloody Sunday in Selma, and the brutal murders of three civil rights activists in Shortly after the funeral, Bryant and Milam were tried and Philadelphia, Mississippi. The names of these cities, and acquitted by an all-white jury. Several months later, many others, will forever be associated with the events that constitutionally protected from further prosecution by helped change America permanently, and for the better. Double Jeopardy, they confessed to the crime in a Look Magazine article. Unfortunately, one city has been conspicuously absent from this important list. However, in March of 006, the Catalyst to the Civil Rights Movement Chicago City Council rectified that omission by declaring Rosa Parks, the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ a city is quoted as saying that she was thinking of Emmett Till Landmark, elevating the building, as well as Chicago, to its when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on that rightful place in modern civil rights history. Preservation fateful December day in Montgomery, Alabama. Chicago is pleased to have helped facilitate this important designation by working with the church congregation and Since that time, numerous buildings and sites associated its pastor, Clevan Wardlow, as well as Alderman Dorothy with the Civil Rights Movement have become either local Tillman (3rd Ward), to attain their consent for Landmarking landmarks or have been listed on the National Register their church. of Historic Places, or both. Preservation Chicago has pledged to help facilitate a National Register nomination The Story of Emmett Till for the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, so it too In late August of 955, Mamie Till Bradley sent her 4 year can become a National Historic site. We are also working old son Emmett to visit relatives in Money, Mississippi. with local activists and city officials to seek out and protect Mississippi, like the rest of the Jim Crow south, enforced a other important sites that may be associated with the Civil strict code of social behavior between blacks and whites. Rights Movement and the Great Migration. Shortly after arriving, Emmett and his cousins visited a While the story of Emmett Till is a part of the past, the general store in Money owned by Roy Bryant. Bryant’s preservation of buildings like the Roberts Temple Church of young wife Carolyn worked at the store. Although the God in Christ will ensure that that history never disappears. exact events have never been confirmed, it is alleged that With the preservation of this important legacy to the Civil Emmett wolf-whistled at Mrs. Bryant. Rights Movement, the story of Emmett Till will live on so it can be told to future generations. A few days later, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J. W. Milam abducted Emmett from his home in the middle of For more information on the Emmett Till murder please the night. Several days after that, Emmett’s beaten and visit www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/ PRESERVATION CHICAGO www.preservationchicago.org 3 VOICEthe HOPE FOR THE PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH When a city loses a landmarked structure designed by The Birth of Gospel two of the world’s most revered and influential architects, In 9, the synagogue became the Pilgrim Baptist Church, it’s a heartbreak. But when that structure also happens to serving as a welcoming beacon to African-Americans who have housed events so historical, they have changed the were arriving from the South in search of homes and jobs face of an entire cultural landscape, it is a tragedy. Such during the Great Migration between World Wars I and II. was the case on January 6, 006, when fire gutted the Bronzeville began to flourish as a business, cultural and 115-year-old Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago’s storied social center for middle-class Blacks, and it was during this Bronzeville neighborhood. time, in this Church, that jazz and blues artist Thomas A. Dorsey gave rise to a new genre of music: Gospel was born. An Architectural Gem Imagine the earth-moving vibrations emanating from the Designed by Louis H. Sullivan and partner Dankmar Adler, Church when the voices of such Gospel icons as Mahalia the building was originally a synagogue whose innovative Jackson and Sam Cooke rang from the rafters! architecture paid homage to the progressive spirit of the Jewish Reform congregation, of which Adler was a Coming Full Circle member. At the corner of 33rd Street and Indiana Avenue In the ‘50’s and ‘60’s the neighborhood began to change, it cut an imposing figure, a brawny block of limestone becoming poverty stricken and crime-ridden; membership masonry and rounded arches capped by a smaller block of what once was a thriving congregation dwindled down with a steeply pitched roof.