DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
Art, documents, reconstructed environments, and changing exhibitions connect African civilizations, slavery, Chicago’s Black communities, and national political culture.
Artwork inspired by Eldzier Cortor
Founded by Margaret Burroughs and fellow educators in 1961, DuSable was built from the conviction that Black history could not wait for mainstream institutions to recognize it. Its galleries move between African diasporic history, enslavement and resistance, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, civil rights, and Chicago cultural life, often through art as well as archival evidence.
Give the permanent historical sequence time before entering the changing galleries; the latter may assume context established earlier. The museum sits in Washington Park, near the site planned for the Obama Presidential Center, and its institutional history is part of the visit. Read dates and provenance carefully, and distinguish national narratives from stories rooted specifically in Chicago.
- Founded
- 1961
- Founder
- Margaret T. Burroughs
- Setting
- Washington Park
Quick guide
- Begin with the institution
- Learn why Burroughs and community educators created the museum before reading its historical galleries.
- Separate scales
- Notice when an object explains Chicago, the United States, or the wider African diaspora.
How to make DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center count
- Begin with the institution
- Learn why Burroughs and community educators created the museum before reading its historical galleries.
- Separate scales
- Notice when an object explains Chicago, the United States, or the wider African diaspora.
- Use art as evidence
- Treat paintings and sculpture as arguments about memory and identity, not decoration between documents.
- Add the park
- Walk the immediate Washington Park setting to understand the museum’s South Side civic geography.
Good to know
Open Tuesday–Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m.; closed Monday. Limited free parking is available in Washington Park near the museum. CTA buses serve the area; allow extra time during major South Side events.
Notice these
- Harold Washington material
- Great Migration narratives
- Margaret Burroughs legacy