Barack Obama’s own words will be etched into the Obama Presidential Center’s 235-foot flagship museum’s facade. A portion of the chosen text, taken from his speech marking the 50th anniversary of the marches from Selma to Montgomery, reads: “America is not the project of any one person.” The same holds true for the envisioned center..
Last year Chicago’s Congress Parkway, the southern border of the Loop, was renamed for local resident Ida B. Wells, the renowned investigative journalist, anti-lynching activist, and suffragist. It was the first-ever downtown Chicago roadway to be named for an African-American woman.
Right now aldermen are considering an ordinance to rename a much more iconic roadway for another local Black trailblazer. As originally reported by Block Club’s Alex Nitkin, the group Black Heroes Matter has long called for renaming Lake Shore Drive for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who established a trading post near the modern-day Michigan Avenue bridge. Regarded as the permanent first non-Native resident of the area, he is considered to be the founder of Chicago.