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CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Mon., Jan. 28, 1974-

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Margaret Burroughs, founder of the Du Sable Museum of African American History, stands beside moving notice in front of the museum's original quarters at 3806 S. Michigan. (Sun Times Photo by Jack Lenahan)

Du Sable move set
Dream of people's museum grows

By Ellis Case

When Margaret Burroughs started the Du Sable Museum of African American History in 1961 she had a dream of it ultimately becoming a large, national institution drawing exhibits and visitors from all over the world.

It was perhaps a large dream for someone starting with a private collection on private property. But, said Mrs. Burroughs, "After all, the Art Institute started in someone's private collection."

Not too long after Du Sable Museum started, it became obvious, said Mrs. Burroughs, that it was "serving a need . . . (and) the community decided we were here to stay."

The museum, at 3806 S. Michigan, now pays its own say and is visited by some 300 schoolchildren a day. And recently Mrs. Burroughs made a special appeal to the "little people" so that the museum will remain "a people's museum . . . a grass-roots thing."

The museum is in the midst of a $1.5 million fund-raising campaign for renovation of a former Chicago Park District police station, at 740 E. 56th Pl., that will be the museum's new home.

It's not that Mrs. Burroughs, a slight, intense woman with an easy smile, doesn't want money from big people. The museum has already received several hundred thousand dollars from various foundations and corporations.

It's just that Mrs. Burroughs wants to make sure the museum remains a place where "the people tell us what they want . . . and we supply the need."

The Park District granted the museum permission to move into the building in December, 1971. The architects are just finishing up the renovation plans. But, said Mrs. Burroughs, "We felt it was important to occupy the place."

So last year the museum moved several exhibits into the building. And a new mural, with important figures of black history, decorates the wall.

Asked about the origin of the museum, Mrs. Burroughs laughed and said, "You know . . . there are some people who are crazy," who are "not concerned about property and all" but with improving life for posterity.

The museum has come a long way since it started. It offers lectures, "positive and inspirational," about black life. It collects a wide assortment of artifacts relating to the black experience . . . "positive or negative . . . (it's) not our job to politicize." It helps those interested in research in African or African American history. It presents school programs. It has a correspondence course in African-American history, for shut-ins, out-of-towners, and "North Shore housewives who . . . may be afraid to come into our community."

The museum does much else, from sending out lecturers to helping people find African names for their children. And now, said Mrs. Burroughs, "I would lie to see a flood of those black-is-beautiful and I'm-black-and-I'm-proud people" to give donations, because "I don't feel I should have to get out and beg for this money."