"Bronzeville is a neighborhood located in the Douglas and Grand Boulevard community areas on the South Side of city of Chicago around the Illinois Institute of Technology and Illinois College of Optometry. It is accessible via the Green, Red Lines of the Chicago Transit Authority or the Metra Electric District Main Line.

"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; Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot; Gwendolyn Brooks, famous author and first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, actress Marla Gibbs, the 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 neighborhood contains the Chicago Landmark Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District.[2]

"47th Street was and remains the hub of the Bronzeville neighborhood and in recent years has started to regain some of the former glory of years gone by. Gone though for good is the Regal Theater (demolished in 1973) where many great performers took the stage.

"During the 1950s and 1960s, a decision was made to replace the "slums" with several straight miles of high-rise public housing projects, managed by the Chicago Housing Authority, essentially isolating and simultaneously concentrating the poor black population in this section of the city. The largest complex was Robert Taylor Homes."

Read the full Wikipedia entry:

Bronzeville Neigborhood in Chicago

http://www.bronzevilleonline.com

Bronzeville Visitor Information Center - Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council

http://www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/B/BlackMet.html

Chicago Landmarks: Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District

http://www.iit.edu/~bronzeville-stories/

Bronzeville Digital Stories