The African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago will host an exhibition over the summer relating to African Americans and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The exhibition, entitled “The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition,” was inspired by a pamphlet with the same title that was co-authored by civil rights activist Ida B. Wells.
Lori Baptista, director of the African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, states, “The occasion presents an important opportunity to not only raise questions concerning the fair’s legacy, but also enter contemporary debates over who benefits from large-scale public festivities in Chicago.”
Dr. Baptista is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She holds a master’s degree from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University.
