A planned two-mile-long biking, running and walking trail on the South Side, with a monument that pays tribute to a cycling champion who blazed a trail in sports for other Black athletes, will receive a boost of funding next year, including more than $5 million from local and federal governments.
How exactly that money will be used has yet to be determined, John Adams, founder of the Bronzeville Trail Task Force, said Friday.
The task force, started in 2020, received a $75,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust in April 2022.
The trail will be good for the health of the Bronzeville community, Adams said. It would run from 40th and Dearborn streets east to 41st Street and Lake Park Avenue, with public art displayed along the route.
“It’s going to be the most transformative, catalytic project in the history of Bronzeville,” Adams said. “You can put a skyscraper at the heart of Bronzeville but it would never be as transformative as the Bronzeville Trail.”
Announced in 2022, the goal of the task force is to create a trail for the South Side that will be like the North Side’s wildly popular Bloomingdale Trail, commonly called “The 606,” which opened in 2016.
The plan is to use the abandoned Kenwood “L” embankment for the Bronzeville Trail. Adams expects the trail to be complete in six to seven years.
The Bronzeville Trail is expected to cost nearly $100 million, which is about as much as the 606.
The task force has been working closely with city planners, Adams said, and met with the city two weeks ago to talk about allowing access to parts of the trail even before the entire route is completed.
There are also plans to have a monument built on the western end of the trail for Black cycling champion Marshall “Major” Taylor, who won a world championship in 1899 as well as two national sprint cycling titles in 1899 and 1900. He was the first African American sports hero and the first Black athlete to regularly compete in integrated competitions.
“He literally accomplished all of this during the throes of Jim Crow. He did not have Black fraternities or major civil rights organizations to advocate on his behalf,” Adams said.
During his career, Taylor faced intense racism. Cyclists intentionally crashed into him and he received death threats.
Taylor spent his final years living in the YMCA Hotel in Bronzeville before his death in 1932. He was buried in an unmarked grave before his body was exhumed and reburied at Mount Glenwood Cemetery 16 years later.
“He’s forgotten, so it’s way past time for him to have his rightful place in U.S. sports and civil rights history with respect to the impact he’s made in this country,” Adams said.
In January, the task force announced a plan to bring attention to Taylor’s accomplishments in cycling, including asking Congress to award Taylor with a Congressional Gold Medal.
A bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday would do just that. Backed initially by Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., and Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., it had 31 additional co-sponsors as of Friday night.
The task force worked with Jackson’s congressional staff to draft the resolution, Adams said.
