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Chicago had its own black renaissance

In 1997, Darlene Clark Hine came across an essay in which Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps argued that black Chicago had its own, little-known renaissance that began in the 1930s and rivaled the famous one that occurred in 1920s New York.

"I read this and said, 'What in the world?'" said Hine, a professor of history and African-American studies at Northwestern University. "Bontemps was saying that Chicago had a major black arts movement without finger bowls and highfalutin intellectuals. Most of Chicago's artists were hardworking, working-class people creating the people's art."...

Read entire article at Chicago Tribune