STREET SCENE ON 47TH STREET IN SOUTH SIDE CHICAGO, A BUSY AREA WHERE MANY SMALL BLACK BUSINESSES ARE LOCATED. MANY OF THE CITY’S BLACK BUSINESS OWNERS STARTED WITH SMALL OPERATIONS AND GREW BY WORKING HARD. TODAY CHICAGO IS BELIEVED TO BE THE BLACK BUSINESS CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES. CENSUS FIGURES IN 1970 NOTED THAT 8,747 BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES WERE IN OPERATION IN CHICAGO AND GROSSED MORE THEN $332 MILLION
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”.
Also appearing in the collection…
“Street scene on 47th Street in South Side Chicago, a busy area where many small...”
Artist
Date
1973–4
From
Documerica
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