Dr. Carol L. Adams, president and CEO of the DuSable Museum of African American History, generous sponsors and her dedicated planning committee, produced a spectacular black-tie gala to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the nation’s oldest museum dedicated to black history and culture.
In 1961, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, her husband, Charles, and a group of progressive white and black artists and activists, convened to bring the museum (originally named the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art), into existence. At that time, Burroughs housed the museum in three rooms of her home. Seven years later, the museum was renamed after Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, an Afro-Haitian entrepreneur who founded Chicago in 1779.
Today, the museum is located at 56th and Cottage Grove, and holds more than 150,000 pieces of artifacts and works of art that spans from the mid-19th century to the present.
Honorees for the Night of 100 Stars were Chaz Hammel-Smith Ebert, president of Ebert Productions and executive producer of “Ebert Presents At the Movies”; Tom Joyner, host of “The Tom Joyner Morning Show”; Tim King, founder, and CEO of Urban Prep Academies; and Jeremy Winters, a junior at Simeon Career Academy. Winters is creator of the Simeon After School Arts Group, and student adviser to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The night was golden, with the cocktail and gala reception, followed by the awards presentation, and the cocktail and buffet supper. Some attendees continued the party with the coffee and dessert reception that ended at midnight.
Here’s a recap of the magic.
Photos by Bernard Williams
