Vacant Lot in Bronzeville

This was where they played, sometimes in joy and other times in sorrow, amidst debris and broken swings, dreams undeterred.

Bronzeville is a neighborhood located in the Douglas and Grand Boulevard community areas on the South Side of the City of Chicago. In the early 20th century, Bronzeville was known as the “Black Metropolis,” one of the nation’s most significant landmarks of African-American urban history. Between 1910 and 1920, during the peak of the “Great Migration,” the population of the area increased dramatically when thousands of African-Americans fled the oppression of the south and emigrated to Chicago in search of industrial jobs. Many famous people were associated with the development of the area including: Andrew “Rube” Foster, founder of the Negro National Baseball League; Ida B. Wells, a civil rights activist, journalist and organizer of the NAACP; Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, noted artist, author, and one of the co-founders of the DuSable Museum of African American History; Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot; Gwendolyn Brooks, famous author and first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, actress Marla Gibbs, legendary singers Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, and Louis Armstrong, the legendary trumpet player and bandleader who performed at many of the area’s night clubs.

The name Bronzeville itself was first used in 1930, by James J. Gentry, a local theater editor for the Chicago Bee publication. It refers to the brown skin color of African-Americans, who predominated in that area. It has become common usage throughout the decades.

A seriously mixed media bangle bracelet that includes, but is not limited to: rusted scrap from Chicago, IL, lovely gilded seed beads and glass Czech pearls, rusty hardware and wire, brass ring with lucky, evocative charms, and deepest blue-black tattered scrap of Sari silk ribbon. PLEASE NOTE: This bracelet is truly smallish and would work on a petite person with small hands and wrists. It does not open, but slips over the hand, when fingers are closed to their narrowest configuration. It fits me perfectly, my wrist is 6 inches and my hands are fairly child-sized. If you purchase this and it does not fit, you may certainly return it in unused condition within 10 days. Sorry, I can not refund or pay return shipping.

One of a kind, ready to ship.