Archiving Black Southland documents Black suburban life across South Suburban Cook County also known as the Chicago Southland. A suburban subregion of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, the Chicago Southland has the largest number of Black suburban residents and predominantly Black suburbs in Chicagoland with an extensive history of Black migration, placemaking, and social, cultural, political, and economic life dating back to the mid-1800s. The Chicago Southland has numerous stops on the Underground Railroad, is home to the first Black owned airport in the world, the first orphanage for Black children in Illinois, and maintains some of the largest Black home ownership rates across the United States. Despite this tremendous history, the Chicago Southland is largely overlooked in Chicagoland studies and it lacks a centralized archive making it one of the most challenging suburban subregions to study.

Dr. graham-jackson and Nancy Spiegel have developed a Black Southland Library Guide — the first library guide of its kind to assist residents and scholars who are interested in researching Black life across the Chicago Southland. graham-jackson and Spiegel are also collaborating with students, faculty, educators,  librarians, local historians, and Southland residents to develop an archive of primary and secondary resources and Chicago Southland curriculum — a series of classes, lectures, and workshops through Chicago Studies based on Dr. graham-jackson’s research.