It was a powerful moment this morning when a mostly African-American crowd gathered in the soaring atrium of the Harold Washington Library Center’s Winter Garden to honor Chicagoan Ida B. Wells, the investigative journalist, anti-lynching activist, and suffragist for whom Congress Parkway, the southern border of the Loop, was officially renamed today. It’s the first-ever downtown Chicago roadway to be named for an African-American woman.
Also in attendance at the ceremony were South Loop alderman Sophia King and downtown alderman Brendan Reilly, who proposed the ordinance for the street name change; Illinois lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton; Cook County Board president and mayoral hopeful Toni Preckwinkle; and attorney Chaz Ebert, widow of film critic Roger Ebert.
DiFrisco told me at the time that the aldermen’s decision was a huge win for the city. “Ida B. Wells is getting her long-overdue recognition, and we are retaining a cherished part of Italian-American culture,” he said. He dismissed the idea that Balbo was no longer an appropriate figure to be honored with a street name. “The founding fathers of the United States killed innocent people too,” DiFrisco replied. “Atrocities are committed in all wars. . . . I’m sure people will continue to attack Balbo’s legacy in Chicago, and we will continue to defend it.”
But Loyola professor Anthony Cardoza, an expert on modern Italian history who’s in favor of removing the Balbo tributes, told me today that with the renaming of Congress for Ida B. Wells, the idea of renaming Balbo Drive appears to be “a dead issue.”
