Bronzeville The Black Metropolis. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Chicago’s South Side was the center for African-American culture and business. Known as “Bronzeville,” the neighborhood was surprisingly small, but at its peak more than 300,000 lived in the narrow, seven-mile strip.Ella Fitzgerald played there often. So did Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong and countless others. They played in legendary clubs like Chez Paree, the Parkway Ballroom, Gerri’s Palm Tavern, and the Regal Theatre located on or around 47th Street, during the heyday of Chicago’s Bronzeville community on the South Side. By day, 47th Street was a vibrant commercial district; at sundown it was transformed into a throbbing center of nightlife.
By 1920, more than 50,000 rural Southern blacks had migrated to Chicago to escape the cotton fields and the threat of lynchings, but they soon found that segregation left people without some simple comforts, such as places to shop and eat. Gerri Oliver, owner of The Palm Tavern, remembers, “You couldn’t try on shoes downtown. You couldn’t try on hats and coats downtown.” Dempsey Travis concurs: “There was a five and ten cent store at Washington and State where they’d give you a glass of Coca-Cola with a red bottom, to make sure no white folks would ever drink after a Negro.”
Thus, out of necessity, 47th Street, or Bronzeville, began to prosper, and became a source of pride and a haven for Chicago’s blacks. After all, “[there was no point in] going down to Henry C. Litton’s to be insulted when you could buy the same Hart, Shaffner & Marx suit from 47th Street,” recalls historian Timuel Black. Ironically, the majority of Bronzeville’s businesses were managed by blacks, but owned by whites.
The community was also home to many prominent African-American artists and intellectuals, including dancer Katherine Dunham, sociologist Horace Clayton, journalist and social activist Ida B. Wells, jazz man Louis Armstrong, author Richard Wright, and poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
Bronzeville’s businesses and community institutions – Provident Hospital, the Wabash YMCA, the George Cleveland Hall Library, Parkway Community House, the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, Binga Bank, Overton Hygienic Company – were more than alternatives to racially restricted establishments downtown. They were pillars of the community which helped to instill pride and contribute to the upward mobility of African Americans.
Among the many exclusive shops, upscale restaurants and other businesses flourishing in the community was a large department store, South Center, which catered almost exclusively to blacks. One entire floor became the training ground for Madame C. J. Walker, whose school became a fixture in the community, helping many men and women become independent business owners.
No longer were educated blacks limited to jobs at the post office — doctors and lawyers could set up their practices on 47th Street. The first twelve black certified public accountants in America had their offices in South Center. A small but vibrant black leisure class was emerging, and 47th Street offered black Chicagoans a sense of freedom they couldn’t find anywhere else in America at that time.
Today, the neighborhood is seeing major community-driven revitalization efforts, mostly by wealthy and entrepreneurial African-Americans who value the neighborhood’s historic importance. Historic clubs are reopening, and there are a handful of nice coffee shops and restaurants that have opened in recent years. More so than the present, however, the principal attraction remains the neighborhood’s rich history.