Inside the Bronzeville Children’s Museum

The Bronzeville Children’s Museum is one of only a handful of museums in the nation that focus on African-American children. Located on Chicago’s South Side, the museum teaches children about the accomplishments and contributions of black people in Chicago.

Peggy Montes is the museum’s founder and president. “I was always interested in the way our children learn and how our children are miseducated,” said Montes, a civic leader, women’s rights activist and educator.

Montes said her inspiration to create the Bronzeville Children’s Museum came after she attended a 1993 American Museum Association convention in Dallas and went to a Children Museum Association workshop.

“What I discovered was just phenomenal,” said Montes. “In terms of the kind of responsibility and commitment white parents have to wanting their children to learn early and to be exposed to the museum world at a very early age.”

After her experience at the convention, she came back to Chicago looking for an African-American focused children’s museum, but she didn’t find one. At that point, Montes said she decided to open a children’s museum with an African-American focus.

“I wanted our children to be able to learn at a very early age about the contributions, the culture and the history of our people,” she said. “I feel that it is so important and it’s not been taught in the school, in the homes or in the churches.”

Montes said she realized that the best place for children to learn about their history is in a museum.

The Bronzeville Children’s Museum opened on Feb. 21, 1998, in the Evergreen Plaza shopping area at 95th Street and Western Avenue. It originally was a one-room museum with three exhibits.

The museum received support from Democratic state Sen. Emil Jones, Jr., and other Chicago lawmakers during the museum’s early years, according to Montes.

“The recession has not hit us, so we don’t have to compensate for it,” said Montes. “By word of mouth, what we do here in the museum has really gotten out.”

The Bronzeville Children’s Museum has six exhibits, the most popular of which are the Motherland, Easy Being Green and The Bronzeville Gallery.

The Motherland is the first exhibit the children visit. Montes said they learn about the founder of Chicago, Jean Baptist DuSable, the animals in Africa and African-Americans who made history.

“For the first time, a lot of the children become aware of the fact that everybody comes from Africa,” said Montes.

The Easy Being Green exhibit teaches children about conserving energy and how to take care of the Earth, said Montes. “They learn about their carbon footprint,” she said.

Montes said, “I just want them to learn and to start thinking about the possibilities that are out there.” The children are also engaged in learning about ways to reduce pollution through an interactive video game, said Montes.

In the Bronzeville Gallery, children learn about the history of Bronzeville, the Victory Memorial and the history of Provident Hospital. The children also learn about Lewis Latimer, the man responsible for creating the filament for Thomas Edison, and Garret A. Morgan, the inventor of the traffic light, among other people.

The children later venture into the second room, where they learn about Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, the first person to complete an open-heart surgery from which the patient survived, said Montes. “The children get to pretend that they are a cardiologist and get to take apart the little hearts,” said Montes.

They are told about Provident Hospital, which was the only hospital in the 1950s that would treat blacks in Chicago, said Montes.

Montes said the museum has a women’s board that includes retired teachers, principals and corporate workers. “We have 31 volunteers we can call in just to help us,” she added.

Brenda Luverte, a tour guide at the Bronzeville Children’s Museum, said most of the museum’s volunteers are Chicago State University students. She said the volunteers work two hours per day or a couple days per week.

Luverte said what separates the Bronzeville facility from other local museums is that it is focused on education. “A lot of the parents don’t know about this,” she added.

Beatrice Thomas, a tour guide at the Bronzeville Children Museum, said two weeks ago an Asian couple from Des Plaines came to visit the museum with their 2-year-old son and took full advantage of the museum.

Luverte said people who visit the museum come from countries as far away as Jamaica, Belize and African nations. On Thursday, three or four African visitors complimented the museum’s organization, Thomas added.

“We try to give extra knowledge on black history,” said Luverte. “When you come here, you’re going to learn something.”