The jewel of the Southside, historically known as Bronzeville, was second only to Harlem in providing a legacy of cultural gifts to America and the world. Oscar Micheaux perfected his road show tactic Bronzeville and Harlem that launched a Black film industry. The first Black heavyweight boxing champ, Jack Johnson, called Bronzeville home. Joe Louis won the heavyweight boxing championship here in 1937, settled here and frequented the historic Palm Tavern on 47th street.

    Bronzeville enabled the careers of many Jazz, Blues, Gospel and Soul performing artists. In 1915 Joe Oliver’s big jazz band headlined above all performers in clubs that lined East 35th Street. Other notables who gravitated from New Orleans and other places to Chicago were Jelly Roll Morton, Bennie Moten, Alberta Hunter and Johnny Dodds to name a few. For perspective today, that would akin to attracting P. Diddy, Alicia Keyes, Nelly, and Snoop Dogg to live and work here at the same time. In 1922 a young Louis Armstrong apprenticed under Oliver, but soon they both were setting the Bronzeville music scene ablaze. In the 1920s Bronzeville was the home of the gangster-owned Grand Terrace Ballroom (Chicago’s Cotton Club-equivalent) and its own Savoy Ballroom for talk-of-the-town dancing all night for both colors.

    In 1926, the first jazz concert was held next to Bronzeville. Bronzeville was so jumpin’ that the best European American jazz musicians, such as Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael, came to learn and jam with he best African American jazz musicians of the day. When Prohibition Era speakeasies were raided, one was likely to see patrons of both races carted off to jail.

    The depression and crackdowns on mob-owned nightclubs dealt a harsh blow to big band jazz in Chicago. Big Band Jazz could only survive in one city where more patrons could afford it and the police were more lenient towards club owners. Thus, the epicenter of jazz moved again, this time to New York City.

    But jazz in Chicago did not die. After World War II, smaller less expensive Bebop bands flourished in the Southside. Sammy Davis, Jr., Dinah Washington, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderly, Nancy Wilson, John Coltrane and nearly every great jazz artist continued to gig here, whether by road tour or for an extended time. Charlie “Yardbird” Parker played his last gig here.

    As yet, the Grand Terrace Ballroom has not been adaptively restored. The original Regal Theatre is gone, but there is a new Regal Theatre serving up Black plays on the Southside. One of our nation’s most prominent museums of African American art and history, the Du Sable Museum, remains just south of Bronzeviulle in Washington Park to preserve and interpret the history of our culture.

    The Bud Billiken Parade has honored Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Nat King Cole in parades down Martin Luther King Drive that now attract 1.8 million people. That kind of publicity kept Bronzeville from being relegated to out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

    The Black middle-class finally noticed and cared. The Chicago Bee Building was renovated into a library. Martin Luther King Drive, adjacent and parallel streets are infilling with restored homes by celebrities, professionals and businesspersons. Most of the Robert Taylor projects are gone, with a number of single-family homes underway or coming in their place. Inspiring monuments and historic markers dot Martin Luther King Drive, with every year bringing something new and significant. Amplifying the uptrend, a bed & breakfast, a Negro Leagues Baseball restaurant, and several art galleries have opened. The MLK and 47th Street intersection, considered the heart of Bronzeville, is anchored on its northeast corner by 47th Street Marketplace, which hosts nearly a dozen Black businesses including retail art, picture framing, specialty foods, a coffeehouse, and an upscale restaurant. The southeast corner, where the Savoy Ballroom stood, was recently reborn as the grand Harold Washington Cultural Center. What will happen to the northwest and southwest corners and when?

    A great resource to coordinate your visit is the Bronzeville Visitor Center at 3501 Martin Luther King Drive, Suite 1 East, 773-548-2579; http://www.bronzevilleonline.com.