Good things are happening in Bronzeville. The work of community groups there is a stellar example of how to raise up a neighborhood through visibility, partnerships, and planning for the future.

In 2008, the community revealed new signage, visible from the Stevenson Expressway, which puts Bronzeville in the consciousness of the general public.

That sign was the result of a partnership between the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area Commission and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), which operate McCormick Place. In addition, the MPEA partnered with the Bronzeville Community Development Advisory Partnership and others to begin heritage tourism initiatives in the community.

The Bronzeville Community Development Advisory Partnership itself is a coalition of the Abraham Lincoln Centre, Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council, Bronzeville Alliance, Bronzeville Merchants Association, Illinois Institute of Technology, South Side Federal Community Credit Union, Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Rehab Construction Systems.

We’re pleased to see a variety of neighborhood groups working together. Too often, a multiplicity of community organizations exists in a neighborhood because they all are going in different directions with different priorities. The Bronzeville groups see the wisdom of working together.

The groups did not even let the disappointment of the Olympics not being awarded to their community slow them down. Earlier this year, the community held a Bronzeville International Summit to plan proactively for the future. With Congressman Bobby Rush, local groups are pushing for a federal bill to help increase tourism for Bronzeville, and they already are making plans for the Great Migration Centennial of 2016, which will commemorate the beginning of the mass migration of African-Americans from the rural South to Chicago and other parts of the north.

Their efforts at increasing visibility, cooperation, and planning for the future already are paying off. We commend these Bronzeville groups for creating a blueprint of community activism that would be beneficial for community groups in other neighborhoods to follow.