Antiguan's Honor U.S. President Barack Obama with Mount Obama

Photo: U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama II

Barack H. Obama II is the 44th President of the United States, and first African American to hold the post. Born on August 4, 1961, Obama's story is a dual one: the American story of values from the heartland of America and the African story of perseverance of the African spirit.

Mount Obama

Antigua announced the renaming of its tallest mountain peak as Mount Obama on Jan. 20, 2009, in honor of the first Black president of the United States. Mount Obama was named on August 4, 2009, marking President Barack Obama's 48th birthday. Located in St. John's, Antigua, Mount Obama is part of the two-island country of Antigua and Barbuda. This is the Caribbean nation's highest honor.

"As an emancipated people linked to our common ancestral heritage and a history of dehumanizing enslavement, we need to at all times celebrate our heroes and leaders who through their actions inspire us to do great and noble things," said Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer at the renaming inauguration that drew about 300 at the base of the mountain, near the island's southern coast, in St. John. (Huffingtonpost.com, 8/4/09).

Image: Antigua & Barbuda

Originally known as Boggy Peak, Mount Obama has been a popular hiking mountain at 1,300 feet (395 meters) above the sea in Antigua, a great destination for hikers and family travelers.

Black Politics: Oscar Stanton DePriest and Unity Hall

Photo: Oscar Stanton DePriest (b. March 9, 1871 - d. May 12, 1951)

In 1915, Oscar Stanton DePriest was elected the first African American City Council person in Chicago. Two years later he established the People's Movement Club as a political base outside of party politics channels in the racially polarized city. The Unity Hall building housed DePriest's People's Movement Club and would become the community headquarters for other prominent Chicago politicians such as William Dawson.

Image: Early Political Campaign Button for Oscar Stanton DePriest

Oscar De Priest's successful election campaign in Chicago's Lakeshore led the trend toward an increase in Black political representation in the north. In 1928, De Priest became the first African American outside the South elected to Congress. His representation led to significant federal anti-discrimination legislation.

DePriest was particularly interested in mobilizing voters of the rapidly growing Black Belt of Chicago's Second Ward. The community where Unity Hall is located was a bustling strip of Chicago's South Side that was noted for its cabarets and limited housing. Unity Hall would serve as a community house to various organizations throughout the years.

From 1916 to 1919, approximately a half a million Blacks moved to Chicago's Bronzeville community. The housing squeeze was due to the rise of industrialization and factory jobs in northern cities like Chicago. This resulted in an influx of Blacks from the South. Couple this with apartheid-style housing restrictions and the powder keg of racial tension in Chicago would lead to the infamous Chicago Race Riots of 1919.

UNITY HALL

Photo: Unity Hall, 3140 S. Indiana, Chicago

Photo: Unity Hall, Moorish Science Convention of 1928

Unity Hall was built in 1887 by architect L.B. Dixon. The red brick and terracotta building located at 3140 S. Indiana Avenue was originally built for a Jewish Social Organization called the Lakeside Club. This building is among the rare surviving 19th-century club-house architectural structures surviving in Chicago. This building structure is among the National Historic Landmarks.

The Harold Washington Library: A Library in Honor of Chicago's First Black Mayor

Photo: Chicago Mayor Harold Lee Washington (b. April 15, 1922 – d. Nov. 25, 1987)

Born in Chicago on April 15, 1922, Harold Lee Washington would graduate from Roosevelt University and later Northwestern University Law School, both in Chicago. His political career included serving as a Illinois State Representative and a member of the U.S. House of Representative. Washington served the City of Chicago from 1983 until his death in 1987. He was among the earliest of Chicago's political advocates for the revitalization of the historic Bronzeville community on the South Side of Chicago.

THE HAROLD WASHINGTON LIBRARY CENTER IN CHICAGO

The 10-story Harold Washington Library Center is the largest public library in the United States in collection volume. It opened October 1991 and was named in honor of the late mayor Harold Washington, the city's first Black mayor.

The Harold Washington Library Center provides full library services, exhibitions and lectures, a fully equipped video theater and television studio, a winter garden and coffee shop. It hosts the Harold Washington Archives and Collections, a "Chicago Blues" archive, and an art collection with representation dozens of Black artists.

Photo: "Events in the Life of Harold Washington,"

mosaic mural by Jacob Lawrence (Chicago, 1991)

In the Harold Washington Archives and Collection there is a permanent exhibition that documents Washington's political career. A mural-size mosaic by the late Black artist Jacob Lawrence titled "Events in the Life of Harold Washington" is located on the central lobby's north wall.

Photo: 9th Floor of The Harold Washington Library

Image: 4th Floor of The Harold Washington Library

Photo: Lobby of The Harold Washington Library

Across from the Jacob Lawrence work is "DuSable's Journey," a "cakewalk cosmogram" that traces the water routes taken by Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable from his native Haiti to to his new home in what is now known as Chicago. The map is encircled by a ring of excerpts taken from Harold Washington's first inaugural address. The Harold Washington Library Center is located at 400 S. State Street.