Chocolate City: The Best African American Blog

Sculpture of DuSable on Chicago's Magnificent Mile

Popularly known as "The Father of Chicago,” he was declared by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago in October 26, 1968 as the Founder of Chicago.

History tells us that DuSable's home, which he shared with his Indian wife was where the first marriage in Chicago was performed, his home was also where the first election was held, and where the first court handed down justice. History also tells us that the religion of DuSable was Catholic and every contemporary report describes him as a man of substance. He expanded his cabin to a trading post, which later became a small community with a church, school, and store. By 1776 Du Sable had commercial buildings, docks, a mansion house with fruit orchards, and livestock. It is documented that DuSable was of Haitian ancestry. However, there are no know proof to verify that. According to his burial record and hundreds of contemporary documents, his true name was Jean Baptiste Point de Sable. Records do not agree on the precise spelling of his name. It may be found variously as Pointe de Sable, Au Sable, Point Sable, Sabre and Pointe de Saible. There are no pictures of exactly what he looked like. Some historians speculated that he was likely a son of an African native slave mother, and an unknown French father born around 1740 in Kaskaskia. Their speculation aroused from a slave manumission dated 1746 at Cahokia of a woman named Catherine and her young son Jean which some think may be the earliest record of the DuSable's family.

I'm not trying to make DuSable's place of birth or his ancestry an issue in this blog. One thing that is cleared is that he was a very successful Black man that traded in what is now known as Chicago from 1782 to 1800. He died in 1818, and was buried at his parish church in St. Charles, MO. His grave has not been found. He was survived by his granddaughter Eulalie Pelletier, who was married in St. Louis in 1817 but left no identified descendants.

Despite DuSable's "Father of Chicago” status, the city has never honor him until recently. On October 18, the City of Chicago unceremoniously dedicated a bronze sculpture in his honor. The saddest part of the whole ceremony is that the sculpture was donated by the members of Chicago's Haitian-American community. Thanks to the Chicago's Haitian-American community, the sculpture is located on Michigan Avenue on the Magnificent Mile. His sculpture is based on a 19th century drawing, and is mounted on a granite pedestal and stands over six-feet tall.

What confuses me about the Capone (oops! Chicago) politicians is their twisted sense of reasoning. Everybody and their grandmama from Europe with a minuscule or perceived droplet of military knowledge is given a street, sculpture, school, park or holiday named in their honor.

General Pulaski is a case in point. On the first Monday of March in Illinois – the State celebrates Casimir Pulaski day. It is a day off school for Chicago Public Schools students as well as City of Chicago and Cook County workers. The rest of the country celebrate his holiday in October. In 1929, Congress passed a resolution recognizing October 11 of each year as "General Pulaski Memorial Day", dedicated to Pułaski's memory. Kazimierz Pulaski was a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland. He is known for his contributions to the U.S. military in the American Revolution by training its soldiers and cavalry. It is documented that at the behest of Benjamin Franklin, Pulaski joined the American Revolutionary War effort, and became a hero, and a lasting source of pride for Polish-Americans. On November 6, 2009, 230 years after he died, President Obama signed a joint resolution of the House and the Senate making Pulaski an honorary U.S citizen.

Italo Balbo is another case in point. On August 1933, Italo Balbo, a fascist, and a friend of Mussolini and Hitler led a flight of twenty-four planes landing on Lake Michigan near Burnham Park. He was greeted by the mayor of Chicago and by the Governor of Illinois, Henry Horner. Describing the fascist as a novel Columbus, the city hurriedly renamed Seventh Street to Balbo Drive. Mussolini donated a column from Ostia to the city of Chicago.

On December 5, 1934, Balbo was the same guy that led his armed thugs to Ethiopia and attacked, massacred and slaughtered innocent Ethiopian men, women and children. His goal was to capture, and merged Ethiopia with the other Italian colonies to become Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI). Ethiopia never surrendered; they vigilantly fought back Italy's racist and barbaric aim to control them. Italy's goal of so-called Italian East Africa was not realized.

Although the City of Chicago dedicated a “donated” sculpture in DuSable's honor, some 200 years after his death, they could have done much better than that concrete slab.

Maybe Chicago's African Americans can learn a lesson from the Polish American,and Italian American in aggressively driving their own agenda. Chicago has the third largest Italian American population in the world outside of Italy, the second largest Polish population in the world outside of Poland and Chicago is the second U.S city with then largest Black population.

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