Washington Park: A Historic Site with a Bright Future
"...I was left on my own. I had bought a map, and I followed Dr. Martin Luther King Drive from its northernmost to its southernmost point, then went back up Cottage Grove, down byways and alleys, past the apartment buildings and vacant lots, convenience stores and bungalow homes. And as I drove, I remembered. I remembered the whistle of the Illinois Central, bearing the weight of the thousands who had come up from the South so many years before; the black men and women and children, dirty from the soot of the railcars, clutching their makeshift luggage, all making their way to Canaan Land… I made a chain between my life and the faces I saw, borrowing other people’s memories. In this way, I tried to take in the procession of the city, make it my own. Yet another sort of magic.”Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father, 1995.*
Important monuments to the history of the South Side surround Washington Park. Across the park proper sits the DuSable Museum of African American History, and in close proximity to the park’s northeast corner is the former home of President Obama prior to his tenure in Washington D.C. Several Chicago Public Schools also border the park, including the newly created Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts magnet.
Synergies with the University of Chicago, the Obama Presidential Center’s affiliate, are also easily forged and annealed by virtue of the location. The University’s ongoing Arts Block project is located immediately adjacent, and proper design of the OPC can leverage this adjacency for mutual benefit and increased community engagement.
Map showing some of the cultural landmarks within walking distance of the proposed alternate site for the Obama Presidential Center.
No place can claim to be a richer repository of African American history. A few nearby historic sites have been highlighted for reference, including DuSable High School, famous for its roster of musician graduates; the Rainbow / PUSH Coalition; and the Harold Washington Cultural Center, one mile directly north on King Drive. Also directly north on King Drive sits Liberty Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself delivered moving sermons and organized protestors to march in support of equal rights.
Washington Park proper is the traditional terminus of the Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American parade in the United States, where a celebratory picnic and festivities are anticipated with excitement each year.
With such a complex and varied cultural milieu, it is no surprise that a young Barack Obama first discovered Chicago by driving the full length of Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, later retracing this very journey for his visiting sister as her introduction to his work in the city. An Obama Presidential Center on King Drive, adjacent to Washington Park, would truly be a homecoming for the Obama family, and an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy in this storied place.
*Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, 2nd Edition. (New York: Crown Publishers, 2004), 145-146.
Grahm Balkany, AIA
February 18, 2021