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Visual Evidence


Photo 1: State Street, 1925.
[Graphic] Photo 1 with link to higher quality drawing.

(The Negro in Chicago, 1779-1929, Washington Intercollegiate Club of Chicago, Inc., 1929.)

This image was well known in the African American community. First published in 1925, it was reprinted four years later in The Negro in Chicago. This area of State Street (just off the top of Map 3) was located in an older section of black businesses closer to the downtown area than Thirty-fifth Street.

1) Which of the following black-owned businesses that occupied this stretch of buildings would you expect to find in a neighborhood shopping center today: a drugstore, a barber shop, a florist, a tailor, a music store, a photographer, a millinery shop, and a fish market? How might shopping here in the 1920s differ from your shopping experiences today?

2) List the most obvious differences between the buildings pictured here and those found in Drawing 1. What might account for these differences?

* The image on the screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of this photo, but be aware that the entire file will take about 90 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem.

 

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