The Bronzeville Children's Museum

PHOTO: METROPOLIS/ROBERT L. THORNTON, III

Peggy Montes, President and Pia Montes, Vice President of the Bronzeville Children's Museum

Why is the Bronzeville Children’s Museum not in Bronzeville?

For over ten years the museum was in Evergreen Plaza on west 95th Street and now it is proudly perched in Pill Hill on 93rd & Stony Island. Founder and President Peggy Montes says, “We were not fortunate enough to get land in historic Bronzeville to build a new building. But, when we talk about Bronzeville, we are talking about wherever our people are so technically, we are still in Bronzeville.” Historic Bronzeville is from 26th Street to 39th Street. Once Restrictive Covenants were lifted, Pill Hill, Chatham, Englewood, South Shore, Roseland, and Auburn Gresham became extensions of the initial place where Blacks settled.

The museum’s location affords them high visibility as thousands of cars pass by every week. Montes believes that as long as people can broaden their view on what is “Bronzeville” they will see that “Bronzeville goes to the city limits because that’s where our people are.”

Peggy Montes, born in Bronzeville, is a former Chicago Public School educator who has taught at Doolittle, Ryder, and Beethoven and was responsible for setting up the Counseling and Guidance Department at Julian. She has taken her educating experience and channeled it into the only museum in the country dedicated to Black children. “It is important for children to learn about their history at a very early age. Then they will know that they can also achieve.”

Montes says that, “Every city has a Bronzeville” and she had hoped that after the opening of her museum, there would be others specifically dedicated to Black children and wants to help make it happen.

The Bronzeville Children’s Museum is a lesson in the history, culture, and contributions of Black people to those whom may have never been exposed. Montes, who runs the museum with her daughter Pia, believes they are fulfilling their mission because she often hears adults say, “I never knew that” and “I didn’t learn that in school.”

PHOTO: METROPOLIS/ROBERT L. THORNTON, III

A portion of the exhibit Motherland to Chicago features the Great Migration of Blacks from the South to Bronzeville

There are four components to the tours children receive and Montes says, “We are different from most museums because we are completely interactive.” First, the children see the exhibit, then they make a craft relating to the exhibit, then they see a film about the exhibit, and finally there is an interactive portion. Montes says that, “These four components to an exhibit reinforces concepts by different forms of repetition.” For example, after seeing an exhibit on Oscar Micheaux, who had a studio in Bronzeville and was the world’s first Black filmmaker, the children reenact the movie making process complete with director chairs and costumes.

Some of the current exhibits at the Bronzeville Children’s Museum include Motherland to Chicago which explains how Blacks came from Africa to America and the Great Migration from the South to Bronzeville. The Food Becomes You exhibit teaches children about Blacks in the food industry and the value of healthy eating. The Provident Hospital exhibit teaches about Black contributions to medicine. The Binga Bank exhibit teaches about Bronzeville’s first Black bank owner Jesse Binga.

PHOTO: METROPOLIS/ROBERT L. THORNTON, III

In the Food Becomes You exhibit there are child sized exercise equipment

Exhibits are designed for children ages three to nine and admission is $5.00. Montes invites the community to their Kwanzaa celebration on December 26th where the children will participate in the ancient tradition of passing on knowledge and history by hearing narratives from a storyteller. Metropolis

For more information on Bronzeville’s Children Museum or to schedule a tour, you may visit their website www.bronzevillechildrensmuseum.com or call 773-721-9301 and email bronzvlle@aol.com.

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