On March 12, Arts + Public Life’s Cultural Stewardship team launched the Washington Park In Our Time discussion series, bringing together a cohort of eight artists, scholars, entrepreneurs, and community members. This first gathering explored the political life of the area in the 1980s and 1990s. Dr. Adrienne Brown opened the discussion with gratitude for the group’s presence and emphasized Arts + Public Life’s commitment to recognizing memory holders from this era as vital to understanding cultural expression today. Joining us in conversation, the group welcomed two guests for the evening: political historian Dr. Charles Branham and prolific journalist Salim Muwakkil. We began our conversation by reflecting on the temporal and geographic boundaries of Washington Park, exceeding the limits of the park itself to trace the connections to specific heritages, ecologies, and symbolisms. Grounded in the constancy of ‘summetime Chi,’ cohort members brought us back to the cover of Rose Blouin’s To Washington Park, With Love – an image of makeshift picnics, generations of family, and people coming together all the way to the tree line. The routine of deviled eggs “every Sunday,” passing out water bottles “every year like clockwork,” at the park became a consistent space to share in culture and community. In that shared geography, Washington Park also became a space to get beyond the typical, to find an environment for adventure and curiosity whether by skipping school or starting one.  

Through the figure of the monk parakeet, Salim reminded us of all those paths that cross through Washington Park, political and otherwise. There seemed to exist a kind of serendipity in which the park felt as though it had almost been named for Harold a century too soon, in which the nature of the park itself felt inherited from Southern landscapes. The civil rights movement, grassroots organizing, Harold Washington’s mayoral election, and larger-than-life political showmanship, all fit together in the neighborhood and community of the park. Washington Park became a space for distance from the machine politics that defined Chicago, even as it was considered a ‘fluke’ by dominant figures in the media and politics. The coalitions for Harold Washington’s mayoral campaign emerged out of a genuine interest, a new “realm of possibility,” in reshaping Black politics in Chicago. These coalitions were embedded in a long history of local entrepreneurship, based in the arts, that stood apart from national politics to forge new kinds of alliances: artists for Harold, lawyers for Harold, Young Democrats for Harold. Even amidst the political maintenance of racial segregation, boundaries were being redrawn at every level, wards remapped, and new social and geographical networks were formed through Washington Park.

This political energy came springing out from the infrastructures of the neighborhood: the jitnies, buses, cars, phone lines, radio waves, and beyond. Whether kids were hanging out of the window – “Vote for Harold!” – or riding down King Drive in the jump seat to “Come Alive October Five,” the collectivities forged through infrastructure became part of a visual and auditory culture of Black political subjectivity. It is these infrastructures that feel missing in the contemporary moment, in which festivals can no longer maintain the same crowds and the park goes quiet and dark in what would have been busy summer nights – an absence of Black sounds and festival drums. As we located a collective desire to understand disinvestment in Washington Park, the cohort came together to think about what we all still wanted to explore in future sessions: the impact of national politics on the neighborhood, ways to redefine community spaces for organizing and leisure, and everyday life beyond the park.

Historian Charles Russell Branham was born on May 25, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois to Charles Etta Halthon and Joseph H. Branham. Branham graduated from Manassas High School in Memphis, Tennessee in 1963. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rockford College in 1967 and earned his Ph.D. in history in 1980 from The University of Chicago where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow.

Branham has been a professor of history at various colleges in Chicago, including Chicago State University and Roosevelt University. From 1974 through 1985, he taught at The University of Illinois at Chicago where he was awarded the Silver Circle Excellence in Teaching Award. From 1985 through 1991, Branham was an Associate Professor at Northwestern University, and from 1991 through 1997, an Associate Professor at Indiana University Northwest.

In 1984, Branham began working as an historian at the DuSable Museum of Afro-American History where he served as Director of Education and is now Senior Historian.

Branham is the author of many publications on African American history and politics, including The Transformation of Black Political Leadership in Chicago, 1865 – 1943. Branham is a member of the Organization of American Historians and the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History. He served on the Board of Directors for The Chicago Metro History Fair, DuSable Museum of African American History, the Illinois Humanities Council and on the Executive Committee for the Chicago Archives of the Blues Tradition.

From 1989-1990, he was the Chairman of the United Way of Chicago’s Committee on Race, Ethnic and Religious Discrimination.

In addition, Branham has served as a consultant to the Chicago Board of Education for their curriculum development for a Black History study unit. Branham also sat on the Board of Trustees for Rockford College from 1990 to 1992. He won an Emmy Award as the writer, co-producer and host of "The Black Experience," the first nationally televised series on African American History. In 1983, Branham was an expert witness in the PACI case which forced the City of Chicago to give greater political representation to African Americans, and in 1990, his testimony before the Chicago City Council laid the foundation for the city's minority business affirmative action program. 

Branham was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 3, 2008.

Journalist and political commentator Salim Muwakkil was born on January 20, 1947, in New York City. Given the birth name of Alonzo Canady, Jr., he was the oldest of four children born to Alonzo Canady and Bertha Merriman. He attended Linden High School in Linden, New Jersey, graduating in 1964. Upon graduation, he enrolled in the U.S. Air Force, serving five years as an administration specialist.

After the completion of his Air Force service in 1969, Muwakkil returned to New Jersey and enrolled at Rutgers University, where he earned a B.A. in political science in 1973. Shortly before graduating, he started working as a news writer for the Associated Press' bureau in Newark. The following year he became the copy editor for Muhammad Speaks-Bilalian News, the largest black-owned publication in the country. During his time there, which lasted until July 1977, he also became the managing editor of the newspaper, and in 1975 officially changed his name.

By 1980, Muwakkil was living in Chicago, working as a writer and editor for the U.S. Department of Housing and Development. He was also serving as a freelance writer, contributing to various publications such as the New York Times and Washington Post. In 1984, he became the senior editor of In These Times. Muwakkil later became a contributing columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. He has also served as host of the “Salim Muwakkil Show” on WVON-AM since 2007.

Muwakkil is the author of Harold!, a book chronicling Harold Washington’s historic tenure as mayor of Chicago. He has also contributed to five other books and has been a frequent guest on Chicago Tonight, a public affairs program, and on Beyond the Beltway, a nationally syndicated political radio program. He has provided political commentary for various other radio and television shows, served as an adjunct professor at the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Muwakkil is married and the father of two children. He resides in Chicago.

Salim Muwakkil was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 10, 2003.

Emma Young is a celebrated author, advertising trailblazer, and creative leader whose career spans decades of groundbreaking work in both corporate and literary spheres. Born and raised in Chicago, Young began her academic journey at Central YMCA Junior College before transferring to Roosevelt University. After working as a research assistant with the Chicago Urban League, she discovered her passion for writing which led her to enroll in the Basic Advertising Class offered by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Her talent stood out and Charlie Blakemore of Leo Burnett USA hired her as a junior copywriter in 1974 after seeing her first spec book. At Leo Burnett, Young wrote radio, television, and print campaigns for major brands including Procter & Gamble, Oldsmobile, Kellogg’s Froot Loops, and Keebler. Her creative mark includes the “Pillsbury Paper Knife” campaign and the “New Freedom Lady” ads for Kimberly‑Clark.

In 1980, she took her vision to Soft Sheen Products, founding the in‑house Brainstorm Communications. There, she led the Perfect Pinch seasoning mix campaign, the Brand New You radio series, and the historic “Come Alive, October 5” voter registration drive, which helped register over 200,000 new voters and contributed to Harold Washington’s election as Chicago’s first Black mayor. At Burrell Advertising, she rose to Vice President, Group Creative Director, creating hip-hop–themed Sprite ads featuring Kurtis Blow and Kid ’n Play. Over her career, Young earned 20+ CEBA awards and held senior creative roles at RJDale, Danielle Ashley, and Carol H. Williams Advertising.

A cultural advocate, she founded the Black Screen Writers Association and co-wrote the film Up Against the Wall. In retirement, she authored the children’s book It’s Good to Be Me and the memoir Confessions of a Recovering Racist. She has served as managing editor of South Side Drive Magazine. Young credits her childhood dreams, sparked by writing fiction on her mom’s Royal typewriter, as the roots of a lifelong career that continues to inspire.