DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center celebrates 65 years

Chicago's DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center was set to celebrate 65 years on Monday.

Beginning at noon, the museum, at 740 E. 56th Pl. in Washington Park, will hold a celebration with remarks from museum leaders and a ceremonial cake-cutting.

The DuSable Museum was established in 1961 by artist, writer, educator, and activist Dr. Margaret Taylor Burroughs and her husband, Charles Burroughs, on the ground floor of their home in Bronzeville. Its original name was The Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art.

At the time, it was the nation's first independent museum dedicated to the history, art, and culture of African Americans and Black people worldwide.

The museum was later renamed in honor of Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the Haitian-born fur trader who is considered the founder of Chicago.

DuSable was born in Haiti around 1745, and as a young man found himself shipwrecked in New Orleans, according to the Field Museum of Natural History. DuSable worked his way north — forming relationships with Indigenous communities in the Great Lakes area — and arrived in what would become Chicago in 1778, according to a museum blog piece. DuSable married a Potawatomi woman named Kitihawa, and they settled on the north bank of the Chicago River at Lake Michigan, the museum said.

The DuSable Museum moved into its current location, a former Chicago Park District administration building, in 1973, published reports noted. An addition called the Harold Washington Wing, named after Chicago's first Black mayor, was added in 1993, reports noted.

The DuSable Museum houses 15,000 pieces of art, and permanent exhibitions such as "The Harold Washington Story," exploring Mayor Washington's political journey, and "Freedom: Origin and Journey," which is dedicated to the unsung lives lost in the name of freedom and quality.

The museum has welcomed millions of visitors.