In this blog post, CHM intern Kirsten Lopez shares what she learned while preparing to interview a retired Afro-American Patrolmen’s League member as part of an ongoing CHM oral history project. During my summer 2021 internship, I had the opportunity to work on CHM’s ongoing Afro-American Patrolmen’s League (AAPL) Oral History Project, which is focused More
As part of their public history class, DePaul University students Anne Crowe, Patrick Elliott, Joshua Khalilian, and Andrea Weiss-Tracy explore the life and work of Chicago artist Trinidad Castillo in this blog post. The Chicago History Museum commissioned Castillo to paint a mural for its exhibition American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago. The students’ course More
To mark what would have been the 108th birthday of Studs Terkel, Peter T. Alter, CHM chief historian and director of the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History, reflects on the memorable moments he shared with Studs at the Museum and Studs’s enduring cultural influence. When I started working at the Chicago History Museum in More
This summer Ina Cox worked on the Chicago History Museum’s latest collaborative initiative, the North Lawndale History Project, developed by Paul Norrington, president and founder of the K-Town Historic District Association, Inc. She was the Senior North Lawndale Minow Fellow working with Peter T. Alter, the Museum’s historian and director of the Studs Terkel Center for Oral More
In this installation of the North Lawndale History Project series, North Lawndale Minow Fellows Zilah Harris and Wynton Alexander discuss the favorite parts of their oral history interview with a former Black Panther. Billy Lamar Brooks Sr., also known as Billy Ché or Ché, was born in Mississippi in 1948 and moved to Chicago in More