A South Side gathering of Black intellectuals set the stage for Black History Month

The seeds of Black History Month were sown more than 100 years ago in the South Side YMCA at 3763 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago. Carter G. Woodson, a University of Chicago alum, was staying in a room at the Colored YMCA, as it was designated, while manning a booth at the Exposition of Fifty Years of Negro Progress in the nearby Chicago Coliseum. It marked the 50th anniversary of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, and Woodson was selling posters celebrating Black heroes and books about Black history. He also hoped...