Emerging from the sprawling McCormick Place convention center complex, heading southward, you are greeted by a man with a suitcase. He’s 15 feet tall, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and his suit is made of shoe soles. They bear the marks of wear: holes near the ball of the foot, as if they’d been walked in for a long journey, or a long time, or both. The man’s gaze is steely and focused, his chin held high. His free hand is held up like he’s waving hello. As you head south, he’s facing north.
He’s facing north because he represents the legion of blacks who fled the South a century or so ago, seeking lives better than the abject poverty and oppression they knew all too well. They rose up and hit the road in search of work and opportunity. But while this mass migration helped change the nature and character of several northern cities (and Los Angeles too, not to mention the South itself), it will forever be primarily associated with Chicago.