Journey back Inside The Blanket Fort this week as we continue to honor Black History Month with SIU Press books that celebrate Black History and feature stories of and by the people who have shaped it. One of SIU Press’s key publishing areas is Midwest History including Chicago and many of our Chicago titles deal with Black history and the African American experience in and around the city.
This week we look at Lionel Kimble Jr.’s book A New Deal for Bronzeville: Housing, Employment, and Civil Rights in Black Chicago, 1935-1955 explores the South Side Chicago community of Bronzeville, a cultural, political, social, and economic hub of African American life in the city, and how community activists’ struggles for equality and housing and employment led to much of the civil rights activism that occurred in Chicago from 1935 to 1955.