Women’s History Month is more than halfway over, and before it passes for another year, Chicago historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas and Ancestry.com are pairing up to provide a tour that celebrates the impact women have had on the Chicago landscape.
“The Women Who Built Chicago” bus tour takes participants on a one-and-a-half-hour excursion through communities of nine notable female change agents. While Thomas shares stories about women like Mary Emerson Haven, founder of the Chicago YWCA, and Margaret Hie Ding Lin, one of the first Chinese women doctors in the U.S. who provided care to Chicago-area women and children for decades, records found on Ancestry.com appear on monitors in the vehicle. Thomas said the tour is the idea of Ancestry genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith. She reached out to him on Instagram and both thought it was a cool idea to join forces to do “something awesome for Chicago.”
“We had an idea of what this could be and what it could look like,” Sewell-Smith said. “This project has been fun, considering there would be no me without Chicago. My parents got married here. My grandparents, on both sides, Great Migration-ed here from Louisiana and Oklahoma. With 90% of the statues in the city honoring men, there’s a big void for women to be honored. For me, genealogy and family history are a central part of my purpose.”
The Chicago bus tour is part of the national Ancestry initiative, “The Stories of US,” that celebrates everyday people who moved the nation forward over the past 250 years. Other women featured on the tour include Marjorie Stewart Joyner
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, the inventor and mentor who helped scale the Black-owned beauty industry, and co-founder of the Bud Billiken Day Parade. Also singer Dinah Washington, the “Queen of the Blues” and a Wendell Phillips alumna.Considering the deep dives Thomas routinely makes when sharing Chicago’s history, he too was surprised by the information he learned about Chicago’s influential women. “When I discovered hair weave comes from a Black woman from Chicago — how popular it is, how instrumental it is, and the economic point of view — that certainly made me say, ‘Oh my God,'” he said. “Those things always kind of shock me. What I’m learning is that I have to look beyond the person. If we’re talking about a John Johnson, you don’t get that without a Eunice Johnson. We’re talking about Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, and everything he means, you’ve got to mention his wife, because these are the people that hear their ideas first, who encouraged them. Those things always rock me when I learn them.”
Sewell-Smith said when the 1950 census came out, the first people she looked for were her parents. When she found her mom, she started asking her about her neighbors who resided in the South Side apartment building at 38th and Ellis. Her mom shared stories Sewell-Smith had never heard. She says while some individuals get on Ancestry.com to learn details about their DNA, others may lean toward unique stories and locations and want to validate what family history they know.
“It starts with curiosity,” Sewell-Smith said. “We have an ad out that essentially says, ‘Why do you know all these things about the man landing on the moon, or Steamboat Willie, all these notable folks, but you don’t know the same amount about your ancestors?’ Come to us to find out.'”
“There is a woman running UIC (Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda), there’s a woman running the Art Institute of Chicago (Denise Gardner), there’s a woman running the Museum of Science and Industry (Chevy Humphrey), Stephanie Hart is the only woman in America who owns her own chocolate factory (Life is Sweet), we just had a woman mayor, and there’s a solid chance that Illinois will be the first state where both of our U.S. senators are women,” Thomas said.
If you go
“The Women Who Built Chicago” bus tour runs March 21, 22, and 28; more information and tickets ($2.50; sales benefit YWCA Chicago’s TechGYRLS program) at TheWomenWhoBuiltChicago.eventbrite.com