The Great Migration, a long-term movement of African Americans from the South to the urban North, transformed Chicago and other northern cities between 1916 and 1970. Chicago attracted slightly more than 500,000 of the approximately 7 million African Americans who left the South during these decades. Before this migration, African Americans constituted 2 percent of Chicago's population; by 1970, they were 33 percent. What had been in the nineteenth century a largely southern and rural African American culture became a culture deeply infused with urban sensibility in the twentieth century. And what had been a marginalized population in Chicago emerged by the mid-twentieth century as a powerful force in the city's political, economic, and cultural life  

Join author and historian Bernard Turner on this walking tour and see the names and contributions of Chicago’s most influential African Americans on the Walk of Fame, landmarks, public art reflecting the histories of the neighborhood, and stories about the ways African Americans shaped the history and culture of this South Side neighborhood.  

$25, $22.50 members  

Tour runs 1.5 to 2 hours. Meet at the SE corner of 35th Street and Martin Luther King Drive.  

Tour also includes free admission to the Chicago History Museum, good for one week from tour date. 

Masks are optional for our outdoor walking tours. Learn more about our COVID-19 safety policies and procedures.