Earlier this month, Harold Washington Library debuted an exhibit titled, “Local Legends: African American Steelworkers in the Calumet Region”, which will be on display through April 30. Located on the third floor of the library, the exhibit examines African-American experiences in the steel industry from the Great Migration to deindustrialization.
The exhibit was created to celebrate the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s (ASALH) Black History Month theme of “African Americans and Labor.” The initial idea for the exhibit started after its curator moved to an industry-heavy area of the city.
“When I moved to the Southeast Side, I became interested in the region’s steel history and began doing personal research,” said Bianca Milligan Garcia, Harold Washington’s library associate for exhibits. “I wanted to make an exhibit about my community and our contributions to Chicago’s labor history but couldn’t find a narrow enough topic to make into an exhibit. I saw an opportunity when ASALH announced its 2025 theme.”
After pitching the idea to the Exhibits Team and the African American Heritage Committee (of which she is a member), Milligan Garcia began the time-consuming process of finding information about the Black labor experience in Chicago’s steel industry by digging through archives at the Chicago Public Library’s repositories and exploring articles by scholars across various disciplines.
While the exhibit itself is relatively small and intimate, featuring photographs displayed on the walls and display cases placed at either entrance, the underlying stories conveyed through the photographic montage are profound and speak to a fascinating history. The installation focuses on the human experience, rather than the technical aspects of steel making.
The exhibit shows how many African Americans found work in steel mills throughout the Calumet Region such as U.S. Steel-Southworks, Iroquois, Acme/Interlake, Wisconsin Steel, and Republic Steel.
The exhibit begins with photographs that tell the story of African Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South during the Great Migration. Between 1916 and 1970, approximately six million African Americans moved from rural areas of the South to northern cities in search of better economic opportunities and freedom from racism, according to Milligan Garcia.
From the 1870s to the 2000s, steel mills lined the shores of Lake Michigan and the Calumet River. In Chicago, they were mostly in the South Chicago, South Deering, and East Side neighborhoods. Working in steel mills such as these provided a vital source of employment for countless men and women. Working in the mills was hard and often performed under difficult conditions such as extreme heat, surrounded by dangerous machinery and molten metal. Accidents were common.
Three photos of prominent Black labor figures (and local legends) accompanied by their biographies make up one of the displays: Joe Cook, Frank Lumpkin, and Ola Kennedy.
“Our goal was to create a balanced exhibit of artifacts, photographs, ephemera, statistical information, and contextual text to tell the story of African-American steelworkers,” Milligan Garcia said. “Instead of just writing about them as a group of nameless steelworkers, we chose to focus on three standout individuals whose stories serve as case studies of the significant contributions African Americans made to Chicago’s steel industry.”
Joe Cook became the first Black president of Local 1029 of Valley Mould & Iron in the Calumet Region, serving in the role until his retirement in the early 1960s. The union was among the first locals to join the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) union drive efforts in the steel industry in 1936. This was just one year before U.S. Steel Corporation-South Works obtained their union contract as Local 65.
Cook also helped integrate South Chicago’s YMCA and South Chicago Hospital. He was an advocate for the creation of the Chicago Public Library South Chicago Branch and was also involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
Ola Kennedy, a resident of Gary, Indiana, was one of the founding members of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, a member of the NAACP, and held various union positions. Frank Lumpkin led the effort to have a national union represent the Wisconsin steelworkers. While unsuccessful, Lumpkin went on to create the Save Our Jobs Committee, which protested for workers’ rights in Illinois and Washington, D.C., and succeeded in winning multiple court settlements against the owners of Wisconsin Steel that totaled $19 million.
Cook’s, Kennedy’s, and Lumpkin’s stories shed light on workers who contributed to the formation of steel unions. “They were involved in union committees advocating greater representation within the workforce and the union,” Milligan Garcia said. “Additionally, they collaborated with other national and international unions, such as the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, to address issues of discrimination and rank-and-file workplace grievances.” She emphasized that these men “are three leaders that stood out…but certainly were not the only ones.”
Visitors to the exhibit can learn of the enduring legacy of the African American steelworkers who worked under the harshest of conditions for a better life for themselves, their families, and future generations.
The exhibit concludes by showcasing the advancements made by African Americans in the steel industry, despite the challenges posed by its decline.
“When the industry began leaving the region between 1980 and 2002, African Americans, including other steelworkers who worked beside them, lost their jobs, benefits, homes and even lives due to health issues related to lack of care—including suicide, substance abuse, stress, and work-related issues,” Milligan Garcia said.
The personal narratives and archival photographs in the exhibit offer a glimpse of the struggles and systemic discrimination that workers endured and highlight the key roles they played in unionizing their workplaces, fighting for better wages and safer work conditions.
“In addition to its run at Harold Washington Library Center, there is an adapted version of the exhibit on display at Altgeld Gardens, Hegewisch, and Jeffrey Manor branches,” said Chas Cassidy, the Chicago Public Library’s exhibits unit curator. “This exhibit will travel to six additional South Side library branches in May and September to commemorate Memorial Day and Labor Day, respectively.”
Cassidy added that she “would love to hear from current and former steelworkers and their families about their experiences because [she] would love to continue improving and expanding the exhibit.” She stressed that her hope for the legacy of the exhibit is that it will reinforce people’s feeling that the library sees them and cares about representing their stories.
“We… want to surface this history to contribute to broader thinking on what it means to be a Black worker, a South Sider, a steelworker, a transplant to Chicago from somewhere else,” Cassidy said. “It’s easy to be attracted to simple stories, but it takes work to share balanced, honest, relevant history. We want patrons to know we are up for the challenge.”
The exhibit at Harold Washington Library is open during the library’s regular hours, 9:00am to 8:00pm, Monday through Thursday; 9:00am to 5:00pm Friday; 9:00am to 5:00pm Saturday; and 1pm to 5pm Sunday. For more information on this exhibit and all other exhibit locations, visit chipublib.org.
Dierdre Robinson is a writer and accounting manager in Chicago. She has a BA in Journalism from Michigan State University. She last wrote about artist Obi “Soulstar” Uwakwe.