Between 1910 and 1960, hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the South and headed north in what became known as the Great Migration. Chicago was one of their primary destinations. By the time photographers Edwin Rosskam and Russell Lee arrived in 1941 on assignment for the Farm Security Administration, the South Side had already taken shape as one of the most dynamic Black communities in the United States.
The heart of this community was a neighborhood called Bronzeville. Chicago’s Black population was concentrated between 22nd and 63rd Streets, running from State Street to Cottage Grove Avenue. That narrow seven-mile strip was home to more than 300,000 people at its peak. The two busiest hubs were the intersections at 35th and State Street and 47th Street and South Parkway Boulevard, later renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
People came to those corners to eat, shop, do business, and simply be part of something alive. Bronzeville had a diverse mix — the young and the old, the poor and the prosperous, laborers and lawyers, all living within the same segregated boundaries. Before the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans of all income levels were confined to these neighborhoods regardless of how much money they earned.
Residents built their own institutions to fill the gap left by exclusion from mainstream city life. Churches anchored blocks. Community organizations created networks of support. Black-owned businesses lined the streets. The South Side became the center of African-American commerce and culture from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Music was a defining force. As Southern musicians moved north, jazz, blues, and gospel took root in Chicago and drew audiences from all walks of life. Bronzeville’s nightclubs and dance halls were packed on weekends. The Regal Theater on 47th Street was among the most celebrated venues, hosting nationally known performers.
The neighborhood also had a thriving press. The Chicago Defender was one of the most widely read Black newspapers in the country. Its staff documented civil rights struggles, community events, and local news at a time when mainstream white newspapers largely ignored the Black community. Rosskam and Lee photographed the Defender’s offices and the people who kept it running.
Work was a constant battleground. Many Black Chicagoans labored in manual jobs and domestic service. Employers routinely blocked Black workers from advancing, keeping wages low and opportunities narrow. In 1929, Black residents gained access to city government jobs for the first time — a significant shift that helped a growing middle class take shape through the following decades.
Maxwell Street was another window into everyday South Side life. The open-air market there drew shoppers and vendors from across the city. Rosskam and Lee captured barbers at work, families shopping, and street scenes that showed the texture of daily routine in a community that had built itself largely from scratch.
Faith was another pillar of South Side life. Storefront churches — small congregations operating out of converted storefronts — served residents who couldn’t afford or weren’t welcome in larger institutions. Rosskam and Lee’s images of Easter worship at one such church show dressed-up families gathered in a modest space, marking the holiday with the same seriousness found anywhere in the city.
