Posted on 05/03/2021 1:01:20 PM PDT by PBRCat
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, a Black man, was the first permanent, non-indigenous settler of the land that would become the great metropolis of Chicago.
On Thursday, the Chicago City Council Transportation Committee voted to rename Outer Lake Shore Drive, a 17-mile stretch from Hollywood Avenue to 67th Street, in honor of DuSable.
The aldermanic push to re-christen the Drive comes over the objections of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She is pitching an alternative. She promises $25 million to complete DuSable Park, rename the city’s Riverwalk and create an exhibit there in DuSable’s honor. That’s not nearly enough.
Born in Haiti of African descent, DuSable migrated to New Orleans and traveled up the Mississippi River. “Sometime after 1770, DuSable moved to the region known as Eschecagou — which visitors mispronounced as ‘Chicago,’”
Du Sable sold his property and left Illinois in 1800 approximately thirty-three years before Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833 (it became a city in 1837). He relocated to St. Charles, Missouri, which was then a part of colonial Spanish Louisiana.
Du Sable did live in the Chicago region exclusively. At various times, he was trading near present day Peoria and in the vicinity of Detroit.
As for being ignored in Chicago's history, there is a Du Sable High School, a Du Sable Museum, a public park named for Du Sable, and a monument to Du Sable in Pioneer Court along the Chicago River. If anything, this nomadic trader is more than adequately honored within the city limits. His connections to Chicago, Illinois are exaggerated. Du Sable died before Illinois achieved statehood.
While his date of birth is uncertain, an educated guess would suggest that he spent two thirds of life residing outside of area that became Chicago fifteen years after his death and thirty plus years after his departure.
Mayor Lightfoot's opposition to renaming Lake Shore Drive is well founded. The roadway is iconic and it will cost millions for property owners and businesses to rename their addresses along Lake Shore Drive.
Boy what a giant mistake that turned out to be !
Until I was about 10 I thought Chicago had an ‘R’ in it.................
You are right. Lake Shore Dr. Is iconic
They can give it a secondary name but keep Lake Shore Dr. name.
Remember, Chicago is built on a sea of stink weed plants. The Indian word for the Chicago area was “chick-aug-goo” which meant “bad smell”. That’s where we get the name. Some things never change.
As every first grader knows, America was founded by gay muslims.
Chicago has a history of name changes of roads and highways.
The John F. Kennedy Expressway was originally the Northwest Expressway.
The Eisenhower Expressway was originally the Congress Expressway.
The Stevenson Expressway was originally the Southwest Expressway.
Martin Luther King Drive had another name prior to being renamed for him, but the original name escapes me.
They can rename it all they want. It will still be referred to as lake Shore Drive.
Always.
The Eisenhower Expressway was originally the Congress Expressway.
Well, they got one name change right.
My old home state of Connecticut was founded by settlers led by Thomas Hooker. Not much is named after him, even before wokeism.
Like nobody refers to the Mario Cuomo bridge except Andrew Cuomo.
Name it Watts or Compton...then burn it down.
Fake Black History. Just like Kwanzaa.
Or Juneteenth https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Sheehan-signs-order-making-Juneteenth-a-holiday-15347617.php
He must be rolling in his grave over the status of his city.
Everybody knows Chicago was founded by a transvestite.
(Now they just have to make up a fake history—and go for it!)
“Without him, there would be no Chicago”
Geography made the area destined.
“Native Americans had used the portage for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. They found the Chicago Portage to be a convenient transportation route between the shores of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River in the interior.”
“By 1673 the French had established a trading post at present day Mackinac Island at the top of Lake Michigan. In that year, the first Intendant (administrator) of New France, having heard of reports of a great river to the West and hoping it would be the long-sought “Northwest Passage” to the Pacific Ocean, ordered a reconnaissance mission to find and explore this river. In May of that year the group, consisting of Louis Jolliet, Father Jacques Marquette, and five voyageurs set out on their voyage of discovery.
“Accordingly, on The 17th day of may, 1673, we started from the Mission of St. Ignace at Michilimakinac where I Then was. The Joy that we felt at being selected for This Expedition animated our Courage, and rendered the labor of paddling from morning to night agreeable to us.
“The explorers found the Mississippi River, explored it, and then returned to Michilimakinac by a different route on the advice of Native Americans they had encountered along the way, who told them that there was a better way to return to Lake Michigan. Travelling by stages up the Illinois River to the Des Plaines River, in September of 1673 members of the Caskaskia, a tribe of the Illinois Confederation, led Jolliet and Marquette to the western end of what became known as the Chicago Portage.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Portage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Court
Perhaps Du Sable/Kinzie Court would be a better name.
Du Sable’s cabin was not on Lake Shore Drive.
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