Bronzeville YMCA was built during the Great Migration thanks to over 10,000 Black residents and businesses

Black History Month is being celebrated for is 100th year, and it originated right here in Chicago. In fact, it started at what used to be the Bronzeville YMCA at 37th and Wabash.

But how did that happen, and how did that building even get there?

Starting around 1910, millions of Black folks fled the Jim Crow South to escape racist violence, economic oppression and natural disasters, a historic event called the Great Migration. Many landed in Chicago, only to face exclusion from resources, hotels and boarding homes.

As a result, they settled on the South Side and particularly in the city's Bronzeville neighborhood, which then grew into a Black metropolis. In fact, from 1910 to 1920, he Black population in Chicago grew about 148%.

Because many of these newcomers had no family or money to rely on, a YMCA needed to be built to meet their needs.

Through a grassroots effort, more than 10,000 Black residents and local businesses raised over $90,000 in a year. One of the most powerful donations came from a Black janitor named James Tillman, who donated his entire life savings of $1,000.

Construction on the YMCA was completed in 1913. The Wabash YMCA provided housing, food and job training. It also became a hum for Black organizing at the time.

In 1915, Dr. Carter G. Woodson would go on to establish the Association for the Study of African American Life in History at that YMCA and 11 years later the organization Negro History Week.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially turned Negro History Week into Black History Month.

There would be no Black History Month without the Wabash YMCA, the people of Bronzeville and their co-conspirators.