Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Chicago monuments under assault, Part 12: Kinzie Mansion Plaque

Among the first European-Americans to live in Chicago was Canadian-born John Kinzie. The first recorded non-Native American to live in the city was Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, who is believed to have been born in Haiti. Kinzie purchased DuSable's land and home that sat at the mouth of the Chicago River at Lake Michigan in 1805.

Kinzie's son, John H, was a Cook County sheriff and the second village president of Chicago. In 1837 Chicago was incorporated as a city, John H. twice ran for mayor but was defeated both times. 

There used to be a plaque at the site of the elder Kinzie's mansion. It is now in storage and it is one of the 41 monuments that "warrant attention" according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Chicago Monuments Project, a group formed after the summer riot in Grant Park at the Christopher Columbus statue. That moment, along with two other Columbus statues, are also in storage. 

Kinzie Mansion. Near this site stood Kinzie Mansion, 1784-1832, Home of Pointe Du Saible [sic], Le Mai, and John Kinzie. Chicago's "First Civilian" here was born, in 1805, the city's first white child, Ellen Marion Kinzie.- Erected by Chicago's Charter Jubilee - Authenticated by Chicago Historical Society - 1937.
This is what the Chicago Monuments Project says about the mothballed plaque:
The establishment of "whiteness" as a key component in the founding history of Chicago is expressed explicitly in the inscription of this plaque, commemorating one of the city's early non-native settlers, John Kinzie: The establishment of "whiteness" as a key component in the founding history of Chicago is expressed explicitly in the inscription of this plaque, commemorating one of the city's early non-native settlers, John Kinzie.

Let's play what journalist Sheryl Attkison in her book Slanted calls "the substitution game." Usually that means replacing the name "Trump" with Obama or Clinton in a news story she sees as evidence of media bias. If there was a plaque that memorialized the first Asian, Hispanic, or African-American child there likely wouldn't be a problem with it for the secretive Chicago Monuments Project. That's not to say racism among was not widespread for much of Chicago's history. It certainly was. There is still racism in Chicago today--but thankfully much less of it. 

DuSable was wrongly overlooked for decades in Chicago. But in 1934 a South Side high school was named for him. Downtown the DuSable Bridge, formerly known as the Michigan Avenue Bridge, which has several reliefs that are targeted by the Chicago Monuments Project. Near the bridge you'll find the DuSable bust. And also on the South Side you'll find the DuSable Museum of African American History in Washington Park.

To comment on the monuments "under review" please visit the Chicago Monuments Project "Feedback page." Please be friendly but firm in your comments. 

Please Tweet this post. When you do so use the #ChicagoMonuments hashtag.

Related posts of mine at Da Tech Guy

2 comments:

  1. Might be an ignorant question but what exactly is "whiteness"? In the context of history why are we looking at "whiteness"? If it's infected the Chicago Historical Society, it's definitely infected the Smithsonian...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I believe it's a milder way of phrasing "white supremacy." As I said in my post, we've progressed as a society to where racism is universally condemned--as it should be.

    ReplyDelete