Shorefront Celebrates Black History Month with its New Legacy Center

Carefully stored in archival boxes on wire shelving in the newly renovated second floor double classroom of a former community elementary school at 2010 Dewey Ave. in Evanston are the stories of struggle, accomplishments and pride of local Black history dating back to 1850.

The Shorefront Legacy Center is the new permanent home of Shorefront, the nonprofit organization that collects, preserves and educates the public about black history on the North Shore. Now an established presence in the community, the group started with just one Evanston resident and a single file folder.

“This is everyone’s history, and it played an important part in the development of the North Shore,” says Dino Robinson of Evanston, the founder of Shorefront.

And history is more than just looking back, according to Robinson: “History is being made every day, and we have to document it.”

Humble Beginnings
Robinson’s early research and collecting eventually led to a community movement to establish a central archive center.

During the summer of 1994, Robinson, a graphic designer, accepted a challenge to write an article for a local newspaper, the Evanston Clarion. Between 1995 and 1999, a collective of community members worked to share stories.

The cumulative work, and the award of its first grant from the Evanston Arts Council, led to a series of articles, small exhibits, and two publications that engaged the community in the rediscovery of a local Black history dating back more than a 150 years.

The early collective solidified under the name Shorefront, introduced in 1999 in the form of an informal quarterly newsletter and small, theme-based exhibits. The newsletter evolved into the Shorefront Journal.

Shorefront established itself as a nonprofit in 2002. The board of directors and volunteers pursued partnerships with schools, clubs, and similar historical groups in the Chicago metropolitan area and nationwide. Shorefront recently inaugurated Joi-Anissa Russe as its first executive director.

A Growing Movement
To date, Shorefront has published three books, assembled six traveling exhibits and organized dozens of community-focused lectures. It has published over 30 issues of the Shorefront Journal, featuring black men and women on the North Shore who have made civic contributions. Shorefront Journal is now in the permanent collections of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Library of Congress, and many libraries and historical organizations.

The organization holds regular “Legacy Keepers” workshops for young people in the community, teaching them how to preserve their generation’s history as it happens.

History Finds a Home
Shorefront has more than 60 cubic feet of organized and labeled archival material and last year it finally found a home for its archives and exhibits in a converted elementary school in Evanston—the former Foster School building.

The Shorefront Legacy Center opened in October 2009 and is available for the use of students and professional researchers. The center is open to the public on Thursdays and Fridays from 9:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The exhibit “Portraits of a Community,” featuring photographs of African Americans from around the North Shore by three photographers is currently on display.

To learn more about Shorefront, visit their  website. The organization is in need of monetary donations as well as in-kind donations. The following items would be particularly welcome:

  • Primary source materials on black history on the North Shore
  • Furnishings for the center: Bookcases, preferably lockable; a conference table and chairs; area rugs

The organization is also seeking volunteers to help with building display cases.

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