When considering the American suffrage story in Chicago, spaces of African American female activism and action in support of the vote for women and their simultaneous fight for community betterment are often left out of the conversation. The historical silence around their contributions and the destruction and neglect of the physical spaces they worked in has impacted public memory, making their contributions void.
In spring 2021, a group of teens from across Chicagoland were given the opportunity to research the history of the women, their work, the people, and places they supported to amplify their legacies and speculate new futures inspired by their work.
This project is in support of Chicago History Museum’s Democracy Limited: Chicago Women and the Vote exhibition and is dedicated to Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, Ida B. Wells, Fannie Hagen Emmanuel, and Melissia Ann Elam.
Click the cover to view The Voids Project on Flipsnack.