Nancy Gildart
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Proposal
for DuSable Park
I've craned
my neck looking for the 3 acres on the lake dedicated by Mayor Harold
Washington as a park to honor the first Chicagoan - Jean Baptiste Point
DuSable. I ride in our car trying to see it as we whip north or south
on Lake Shore Drive and I think I can see the trees - the maples and the
cottonwoods - but I’m never sure if that's where it is, exactly.
I have a description of the location - I know in my head where it is -
but I've never set foot on it.
I suppose this parallels what we know about DuSable. We know where he
came from and some of what he did. We know he was black but we don't know
what he looked like. He left no diaries.
There is no DuSable Street in Chicago.
Jean Baptiste
Point DuSable's role in the founding of the city lay buried for decades
under the myth of the duplicitous John Kinzie - the so-called Father of
Chicago. It's fitting then that this piece of somewhat inaccessible and
almost invisible land has been set aside as a spot to honor DuSable.
Taking my own fogbound searches for DuSable Park as a cue I propose a series of banners to be installed on upper Lake Shore Drive just as it bridges the Chicago River and reaches the southwestern corner of the park. These banners would highlight some of the key facts we know about Jean Baptiste Point DuSable and celebrate the re-dedication of the Park. Those traveling Lake Shore Drive would become aware of the existence and location of the Park as well as the role played by DuSable in the history of Chicago.
Bibliography
Cortesi, Laurence. Jean Du Sable: father of Chicago. Philadelphia. Chilton
Book Company, 1972.
Quaife, Milo M. Checagou: from Indian wigwam to modern city, 1673-1835.
Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 1933.
Nancy
Gildart
Homewood, IL
ngildart@yahoo.com
www.gildart.com