DuSable Heritage Association

The DuSable Heritage Association draws its name from Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the Haitian-born fur trader who established the first permanent settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River around 1790 and whose presence the city long underacknowledged. The Association works to recover and publicize Black Chicago’s history, with particular attention to the Near South Side corridor that the Chicago Land Clearance Commission cleared for Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores between 1952 and 1961.

The Association’s campaign for the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area brought together the DuSable Museum of Black History, the Bronzeville Historical Society, civic organizations, and local elected officials to document the significance of the surviving Bronzeville landmarks for a National Park Service review. Congress authorized the heritage area in 2022 under the National Defense Authorization Act. The heritage area encompasses the historic core of the South Side Black Belt, including the Wabash YMCA, the Ida B. Wells home, the DuSable Museum, and the Chicago Defender building.

The Association’s research connected the CLCC clearances of the 1950s to the current gentrification pressure along King Drive and around the IIT campus, naming the same institutional logic at work in both eras. Its public programming has discussed the community land trust model as a structural mechanism for preserving affordability on land the clearances disrupted.