(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The DuSable Black History Museum sheds some light on the influence of the Wabash YMCA when it comes to creation of Black History Month.
“So it offered a place to stay. It offered a place to meet, it offered recreation. It offered job training, and it offered a place for thought, right, for people of like minds to come together and think,” Sherman “Dilla” Thomas said.
Thomas, well known for his in depth knowledge of Chicago history, discussed the role of the nearby Wabash YMCA in promoting Black excellence over the years.
“It's recognized as being one of the first ever YMCAs to allow African Americans to use the facilities. And so then it becomes a place that teaches Black people how to drive when we go from horses to horseless carriages, right? So it offered driver's lessons.
“It was a place of solitude during the Chicago race riot of 1919. It was a safe space. It was a place where all the Black stockyard workers were able to come pick up their paychecks,” Thomas said.
“It becomes a place where Black luminaries are able to stay the night, you know, it's listed in the “Negro Green Book”, which is a book that showed sites that were safe for African Americans to travel and spend a night at during the Jim Crow era.
“Very famous cyclist by the name of Major Taylor died in that building because that's where, that's where he was living at the time.
“If you ever read Langston Hughes's autobiography, he says the Black Y is his favorite place to stay in Chicago.”
The Wabash Y, playing a critical role in modern day observance of Black History Month.
“It was in Chicago that Doctor Carter G. Woodson, who's considered the father of Black history, he started an organization with a number of other Chicagoans. The organization was called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
“They come up with Negro Achievement Week and Black History Month morphs from Negro Achievement Week. It wasn't until about Jimmy Carter's time that it expanded into a month, for a long time it was just, you know, Negro Achievement Week. The concept of needing to study the impact of black people in America that's born right here in Chicago.”
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