ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO AP. WILLIAM
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: HERBERT G. McCANN ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRONZEVILLE, linked to such names as Jesse Owens, Nat King Cole and Richard Wright, seeks a renaissance of its own.
Nat King Cole and Scott Joplin came out of the neighborhood. Lena Horne stayed there. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie paid a visit, and Richard Wright wrote ``Native Son'' while a resident.
But Chicago's once-flourishing Bronzeville section, like New York's Harlem a bastion of black culture for decades, has deteriorated into a community of vacant lots and rundown buildings.
Now city officials and some of the remaining residents want to bring the area back to life by showcasing its past and restoring its landmarks.
``There is a tremendous black history here - the homes along King Drive, the blues section that was on 43rd Street. Some of our great leaders came out of the area,'' said Alderman Madeline Haithcock, who represents part of the neighborhood.
In an attempt at redevelopment, community officials plan to construct single-family homes, redevelop businesses and renovate historic buildings.
The project is receiving both private and public money, including $2.7 million in federal funds and $825,000 from the state.
``A bunch of organizations, businesses and churches have signed on to a vision,'' said Pat Dowell-Cerasoli, executive director of a community redevelopment group. ``They want to restore the best aspects of Bronzeville.''
William Barnett, a former alderman and lifelong resident, hopes to restore the 8th Regiment Armory. Barnett wants to put a child care center, training facilities and black culture exhibits in the building. But first, he must pay the $200,000 in taxes that have piled up while it stood vacant for 20 years.
In the years after World War I, blacks from the South migrated by the thousands to a small area on the southern edge of The Loop, Chicago's business district. They took jobs in factories and mills.
Bronzeville - the name was coined by a black newspaper editor in the 1930s - turned segregated housing into an advantage, becoming a cultural center.
Olympic hero Jesse Owens, boxer Joe Louis and comedian Redd Foxx lived there. Thomas A. Dorsey, a blues pioneer and creator of modern gospel music, practiced at a neighborhood church. Johnson Publishing Co., publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, had its offices there.
Bronzeville's economic and social base grew so large that it became known as ``Black Metropolis.''
But in the 1950s, the neighborhood went into a slide. Its population fell from 193,000 in 1950 to 66,000 in 1990. Public housing projects replaced private housing. Businesses closed.
Some rehabilitation has already occurred. The 1931 Chicago Bee Building, originally the home of several black newspapers, has been modernized and converted to a public library.
The area around the Illinois Institute of Technology, with its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses, has been revitalized.
And IIT's College of Architecture and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design are working on redeveloping 35th Street, where Earl ``Fatha'' Hines, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong played at the Sunset Jazz Cafe and Grand Terrace Lounge.
``It is an uphill struggle any time you try to turn around a community that has had decades of disinvestment,'' Dowell-Cerasoli said. ``[But] things are going fine.''
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB