Black History

Obit-HerrickFILE - In this Feb. 6, 2016, photo, Gene Herrick smiles during an interview at his home in Rocky Mount, Va. Herrick, a retired Associated Press photographer who covered the Korean War and is known for his iconic images of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the trial of the killers of Emmett Till in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement, died Friday, April 12, 2024. He was 97. (Stephanie Klein-Davis/The Roanoke Times via AP, file) ORG XMIT: VAROA302

Gene Herrick, AP photographer who covered the Korean War and civil rights, dies at 97

As a photographer for the Associated Press, Gene Herrick photographed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the men accused of killing Emmett Till. He also covered Major League Baseball, Elvis Presley and five U.S. presidents.

By Associated Press

News

New Southland College Prep step team builds confidence, camaraderie as it honors historically Black sororities

On Wednesday, female students will participate in ‘Step N’ Herstory,’ a dance performance incorporating footsteps, handclaps and spoken word representing the teamwork of sororities.

By Cindy Hernandez

Black History

Black History Month offers lessons, excitement for young Chicago students

Through artwork, dance, readings and performances, students at Willa Cather Elementary in East Garfield Park share what they’ve learned this Black History Month.

By Mariah Rush

Amanda Darrow Utah Pride Center books “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison

Columnists

Don't be afraid, it's just history

With history under attack down South, Black History Month is more important than ever.

By Neil Steinberg

People walk down the sidewalk and sit on chairs on 75th Street Boardwalk, with business signs in the background.

Columnists

Black Chicago is still waiting for investment: ‘There’s so much potential’

The pace of declining Black spaces in Chicago is speeding up, Alden Loury writes. Despite the decline, there’s a market waiting for the investment that will keep Black residents in place and draw others back to the communities they’ve called home.

By Alden Loury

Tonika Lewis Johnson of the Folded Map Project stands next to a black-rimmed yellow sign in front of a boarded-up frame home in Englewood.

Other Views

Black communities use ‘restorative mapping’ as a way to tell stories

Chicago’s Folded Map Project and Black Social Culture Map are examples of how Black communities use map-making to affirm the importance of Black life.

By Joshua F.J. Inwood and Derek H. Alderman

The Chicago Bulls honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during an NBA basketball game between the Bulls and the Houston Rockets Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Columnists

Black history is full of stories that show great leadership runs in the family

There’s a myth that Black leaders aren’t just exceptional but exceptions. This idea discounts that many of these greats were, and are, the children and grandchildren of courageous leaders in their own right.

By Ben Jealous

A Rube Foster bobblehead. Foster founded the Chicago American Giants in 1911. The Hall of Famer played 21 seasons across several professional leagues and was a founder of the National Negro League.

Black History

Chicago American Giants highlighted in National Bobblehead Museum’s Black History Month commemorative series

The bobblehead museum partnered with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to release 50 unique figurines, including models of the Chicago American Giants’ Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Foster.

By Kade Heather

Kitty and the Haywoods last year (from left): Cynthia Harrell, Marilyn “Kitty” Haywood and Mary Ann (aka Ann) Stewart.

In Chicago’s Black history, Kitty and the Haywoods hit all the right notes in advertising

By Erica Thompson

Dexter King was named for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father preached during the Montgomery bus boycott. As an adult he portrayed his father in a 2002 TV movie about Rosa Parks.

Obituaries

Dexter Scott King, son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., dies of cancer at 62

Dexter King was the third of the civil rights leader’s four children. He was an attorney who worked to protect the family’s intellectual property and chaired the King Center.

By Associated Press

Kevin Powell, an activist, writer and poet who is nominated for a Grammy, holds his book, “The Kevin Powell Reader,” during a talk to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s life at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.

Entertainment and Culture

DuSable Museum kicks off Martin Luther King Jr. weekend with deeper look at the civil rights icon

During a nearly two-hour talk, author Kevin Powell encouraged attendees to find their own path to advancing equity, while emphasizing the breadth of King’s mission and humanity.

By Erica Thompson

Chicago

Interfaith Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast discusses labor, faith and the future

The 38th annual event honored Romel Ferguson, a minister and the Chicago Teachers Union operations manager.

By Mariah Rush

TikTok historian Sherman Dilla Thomas gets set up with some new audio equipment by Shure product expert and audio engineer Yuri Lysoivanov at the company’s world headquarters in Niles.

Columnists

Tiny microphones are not the Chicago way

A Shure audio intercession with TikTok historian Sherman Dilla Thomas touches on both Chicago’s rich technological past and his bright media future.

By Neil Steinberg

Members of the Black Panther Party march in the Loop in October 1969.

Black History

Black Panthers’ legacy, image at issue in feud over historic sites

A push to memorialize the Illinois Black Panther Party on the National Register of Historic Places has advanced to the national level.

By Isabel Funk

Columnists

In one 1977 front-page photo at Southwest Side school, the human story of school desegregation era

Protests had erupted in Chicago as minority students were bused to majority-white schools. Amid all of that, two young girls, one white, one Black, sat together as new friends. One was my daughter.

By Nancy Osness

Mamie Till Bradley (center) looks down at the grave of Emmett Till at her son’s funeral on Sept. 6, 1955, at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. Alma Spearman stands beside her daughter, Mamie Till Bradley.

Sun-Times 75th Anniversary

How we covered Emmett Till’s murder and his mom’s decision to ‘let the people see what they did to my boy’

This year marks nearly seven decades since the 14-year-old boy from the South Side was killed in Mississippi. Here’s a look at how the Sun-Times covered his death in 1955, including Mamie Till Bradley’s decision to show the world the brutality he endured at the hands of white supremacists.

By Richard Cahan and Michael Williams

Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr. poses for a portrait at Argo Temple in Summit, Ill. on Thursday, August 24, 2023.

Columnists

8 things to know about Wheeler Parker Jr., Emmett Till’s cousin, eyewitness to his lynching

Wheeler Parker, minister of a suburban Argo church, talks about Emmett Till’s 1955 lynching and brutal murder by white supremacists in Mississippi — and what triggered it.

By Lynn Sweet and Brian Ernst

Dancers on the TV show “Soul Train” come down the “Soul Train” line.

Chicago

Love, peace and ‘Soul Train’: On Aug. 17, 1970, the ‘hippest trip in America’ started in Chicago

The local TV dance show became a cultural phenomenon that took the world by storm.

By Arionne Nettles

Crime

Chicago police policies on searching pedestrians, vehicles need a new review, activists say

A 2015 suit mandated court oversight of the Chicago Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices, but civil rights groups say there are holes in a proposed deal to merge the case into a consent decree governing the department.

By Andy Grimm

Emmett Till

President Joe Biden creates Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Chicago and Mississippi

‘What Emmett did, he gave up a lot, but it helped a lot of people. And he still speaks from the grave,’ Emmett Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., who witnessed Till being kidnapped, told the Sun-Times.

By Lynn Sweet

Emmett Till

READ: Proclamation establishes Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

“These places contain historic objects that illuminate the complicated fabric of our Nation and the injustice and inequality that Black people continue to experience today,” President Joe Biden said in signing the proclamation Tuesday.

By Lynn Sweet

Artist Germane Barnes stands in front in is installation “Be Careful, I Always Am” at the Emmett & Mamie Till-Mobley House Museum, Garden and Theatre located at 6427 South St. Lawrence Avenue in the West Woodlawn during a celebration event honoring Emmett Till’s birthday, Sunday, July 23, 2023.

News

Emmett Till-inspired art installation marks groundbreaking on work to restore his former Woodlawn home

The annual ice cream social to celebrate Emmett Till’s birthday also marked the opening of an interactive art installation, titled “Be Careful, I Always Am,” by Chicago-born artist Germane Barnes.

By David Struett