BLACK MAN OPERATING A NEWSSTAND IN CHICAGO ON THE WEST SIDE THE CITY IS BELIEVED TO BE THE BLACK BUSINESS CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES. CENSUS FIGURES SHOW IN 1970 THERE WERE 8,747 BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES IN THE CITY THAT GROSSED MORE THAN $332 MILLION. BUT BLACK CAPITALISTS STILL HAVE MORE TROUBLE STAYING IN BUSINESS ONCE THEY BEGIN AND THE MAIN REASON REMAINS RACIAL PREJUDICE. LACK OF CAPITAL LACK OF BUSINESS EXPERTISE AND LACK OF SUPPORT FROM THE BLACK COMMUNITY ARE OTHER FACTORS

Featured on PDR in the collection John H. White’s Photographs of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA (1973–74)

It’s hard not to read John H. White’s DOCUMERICA series as a love letter to Black Chicago. Whether capturing protesters or checkers players, concerts or chores, White’s work feels animated by a wonder and curiosity for the great breadth of stories and characters he encountered while exploring his adopted home city — “life”, as he put it in the captions to several of his images, “in all its seasons”.