Magnificent black women
the poets and singers have been remiss
have sung too few poems and songs of you
And the image makers have not recorded your beauty.
On November 21, 2010, long-time Chicago artist and activist Margaret Burroughs died at age 93. Producing poetry, block prints, paintings, sculptures, and participating in theater, she was a modern day renaissance woman. She leaves behind two major institutions the Du Sable Museum and the South Side Community Art Center that are her legacy to a life dedicated to promoting African American art and culture.
In 1917, Margaret Taylor was born in St. Rose, Louisiana not far from New Orleans. In her autobiography Life With Margaret, she tells how her family left the South after the Ku Klux Klan visited their house one night. They moved to Chicago where there were “no lynchings.” Her parents wanted to find out if “the democracy promised by America existed, somewhere.”
Malcolm—by Margaret Burroughs
After graduating from Englewood High School, she earned a teacher’s certificate. She went on to become an art teacher at Du Sable High School, in the heart of Chicago’s South Side, for more than 20 years. While teaching art, she was also making it. She found that there were virtually no opportunities for black artists to exhibit their work in the Chicago galleries. It was the Depression and few could afford to take classes at the Art Institute. She helped to found the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) as a place where aspiring artists could attend art classes and show their work. With backing from the Federal Arts Project, one of Roosevelt’s innovative New Deal programs, it was one of dozens of dozens art centers across the country dedicated to taking “art to the people.” The organizing committee purchased an old mansion at 3831Michigan Avenue built by baseball magnate Charles Comiskey. The ground floor was turned into a gallery, the rooms on the second floor were used for workshops, and the top floor was a performance space. When the art center was officially opened in 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was at the dedication ceremony. Crowds of people filled the street for two blocks to witness the event.
A Black Girl—by Margaret Burroughs
The SSCAC became a meeting grounds for artists in the period now known as the “Chicago Renaissance,” a literary and artistic awakening that took place a decade after the “New Negro” movement in Harlem. Burroughs was part of a group of artists that also included Charles White, Archibald Motley, Charles Sebree, Elizabeth Catlett, Marion Perkins, and George Neal. She was married for a short time to Bernard Goss, fellow artist and co-founder of the SSCAC. She was remarried later to Charles Burroughs, her life-long partner.
Also an activist, Burroughs was in the local branches of the NAACP Youth Council and Carter G. Woodson’s Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. She associated with both liberals and leftists. In the 1930s, she participated in rallies for the Scottsboro Boys, part of a campaign fought by the Communist Party to free nine black youth accused of raping two white women in Alabama.
The Extended Family—by Margaret Burroughs
During the McCarthy era, she did not back down. When she was questioned by the Board of Education about the “Communist sympathizer” Paul Robeson, her teaching job was at stake, yet she still openly expressed admiration for her good friend. In 1958, she fought to bring W.E.B. Du Bois, who had also been called a “red,” to Chicago. A lengthy FBI file was kept on her. Although she believed in changing the system, what she called a “racist capitalist society,” she denied ever being a communist.
Burroughs is perhaps best known for her role in establishing the Du Sable Museum, located at 57th and Cottage Grove in Washington Park. Named after the black founder of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, it is a must visit for anyone interested in African American history. The museum draws from its collection of 15,000 pieces and also hosts travelling exhibits. In the summer, there are jazz performances and films held in the park. Burroughs visited Urbana-Champaign several times. Her prints hang on the walls of the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center on campus. She was last here on January 31, 2009 to kick off Black History Month.
Throughout her life, Burroughs was a champion of art. In her later years, she went into Illinois prisons to teach creative writing classes. She continued to mentor young artists. “When you don’t keep moving, you die,” she said. At age 90, she visited Venezuela to witness first-hand the socialist government of Hugo Chavez. After she passed away, President Barack Obama said that Burroughs was “widely admired for her contributions to American culture as an esteemed artist, historian, educator, and mentor.”
