Aug. 12--Chicago Park District officials and political leaders gathered at 31st Street Beach on Tuesday to recommend the beach be renamed for the late Margaret Burroughs, co-founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History and longtime Park District commissioner.
Ald. Will Burns, 4th, gestured to a group of children in blue Park District shirts talking and playing on the beach during the announcement, saying the reason for the name change was "so that they know that there were powerful African-American people who saw the world not as it was, but as it could be."
Burroughs started the nationally recognized DuSable Museum with her husband in 1961 in the living room of their South Side home. She was among a number of artists who founded the South Side Community Art Center. Burroughs also served as a Park District commissioner for 25 years until her death in 2010 at 95.
In 2012, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat, began a campaign to name a city landmark after Burroughs. Rush called Burroughs "the only one who deserves this honor."
A Park District art gallery at the South Shore Cultural Center bears her name.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Chicago, recalled the last time he worked with Burroughs was when the two spoke to inmates at a federal prison.
"Margaret could hardly walk up the steps to get there," Davis said. "But she was totally dedicated and committed to those things that she believed in, and she did them all the way up to the last moment of her breath."
The renaming of the beach will not be official until the seven-member Park District board votes on the matter Wednesday. But Park District Superintendent Michael Kelly said he was confident the measure would pass.
"We wouldn't have been out here today if we didn't have the votes," he said.
While the beach was sparsely populated before the news conference, people of all ages were basking in the sun and playing in the water by the time lawmakers made their closing comments.
"Margaret will live forever because she will live here on this beach," Davis said. "And she will live in our hearts and our souls."
Chicago Tribune's Tony Briscoe contributed.
jacraven@tribpub.com
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