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Alderman Dorothy Tillman of Chicago's 3rd Ward has provided leadership
for a transit oriented redevelopment plan for southside's Bronzeville community.
The four corners of 47th street and King Drive will be home to the African Bazaar,
Second City Comedy Club, Quincy Jones's Plaza, the Cultural Center. The plan envisions
the community becoming a major tourist traction. It is located adjacent to the 47th
Street transit stop allowing easy access for visitors. Chicago is the largest convention
center in the World. The MaCormick Place Convention Center is only a few transit
stops to the north. It is felt that many conventioneers would jump at the chance
to experience authentic "blues" culture in the safe, clean, modern African
Village environment. |
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Redevelopment Strategy Based upon on the Rich Cultural and Transit
Assets of the Community In the 1930s, 40s, and early 50s, the area around 47th and South Parkway formed the commercial and cultural heart of the "Black Metropolis," or Bronzeville. It was a mecca for African-Americans migrating from the impoverished south, and it bustled with black-owned businesses and with well-dressed men and women.  The Regal Theatre, the Savoy Ballroom, and the Metropolitan Theatre ranked with the city's premier entertainment venues. In the postwar years, the country blues of the Mississippi delta gained a hard, electrified edge in clubs along 43rd and 47th Streets. Not even that can be said of the scene outside Oliver's door. Like all of Bronzeville, 47th Street declined after the war, done in by decades of disinvestment, social change, job loss, and urban renewal. When restrictive housing covenants were eased, many blacks who could move did, leaving houses that would stand abandoned for years. High-rise public housing developments brought in low-income residents. Businesses and nightclubs shut their doors-the Regal, Savoy, and Metropolitan all were eventually shuttered and razed. By 1990 Bronzeville's population was a third of what it had been in 1950. While 47th Street is still a shopping district with an active street life, the strip abounds with vacant lots, blighted buildings, and low characters. The inner city's underside is on full display here.  The theming has already begun. Two years ago, Tobacco Road street signs were installed along East 47th. That's the title not only of the 1964 hit song by Lou Rawls, who grew up in the area, but also of a nonprofit community development organization with close ties to Tillman. Tobacco Road Inc. is building the 47th Street Cultural Center and Lou Rawls Theater, which after a troubled history is finally taking shape at 47th and King on the former site of the old Regal, demolished in 1973, and the South Center Building, torn down in the late 1980s. "We're building [the African village] out from that center," |
 Over the years, some of the biggest names in show business came in-Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, James Brown, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Redd Foxx, and Nipsey Russell. There were groups like the Temptations, literary lights like Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Lerone Bennett Jr. Ebony publisher John Johnson patronized Gerri's. The list goes on and on, across the "wall of fame" that dominates the back of the club, next to its small stage. (under construction 2/01)  Department of Planning officials and Alderman Dorothy Tillman want to transform various parts of the area into a blues nightclub district and "African village" offering a bazaar plus African/Caribbean restaurants, coffeehouses, music stores, and other shops. Also planned are a Second City comedy club, a plaza with a statue honoring Quincy Jones, and a roller skating rink.
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