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Chicago's honorary brown street signs, days, and commemorative honors; the who, what, where, when and why.  Honorary Chicago guide book, maps, biographies, history, trivia, tours, and gifts.

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Ukrainian American Veterans Way

Linda Zabors

Veterans Day

Honorary Ukrainian American Veterans Way dedicated in 2016

What a better way to celebrate veterans than to feature the honorary sign dedicated this year to Ukrainian American Veterans.  The Chicago organization of the UAV Post 32 hosted the 69th UAV National Convention in Chicago this year.  

The national Ukrainian American Veterans organization began in 1948 by veterans of WWI and WWII. It's membership includes honorably discharged American veterans of Ukrainian descent.  In 1998 it launched the UAV Registration Project, which aims to collect the names of Ukrainian Americans who served in the US Armed Forces. Volume one contains more than 3,000 names and stories.

The many Ukrainian immigrants from the 1880s settled in the Chicago neighborhood which came to be known as Ukrainian Village. 

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Honorary Chicago has made a similar goal.  Since 2014 we have mapped the Chicago honorary street signs which are dedicated to veterans.  This Veterans Day marks the 3rd anniversary of the Honorary Chicago Veterans Map, which is an ongoing effort.

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categories profile, street
tags streets, Veterans, Honorary Street, Honorary Brown Sign, 2016, Ukraine

Dr. Sokoni T. Karanja Way

Linda Zabors

Sokoni Karanja means “A person from across the sea with knowledge” in Swahili. He founded the Centers for New Horizons in Chicago, a social service in the Bronzeville neighborhood to restore it as self-sufficient community with pride in its African and Black American history. He was inspired by Malcolm X, Julius Nyere, and the Black Metropolis of the 1920s. In the early 1970s he lived in and traveled around Tanzania building communities and schools. He was the Assistant Dean of Students at Brandeis University. He has been recognized as an expert in childhood and community development.

MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant
University of Chicago, Adlai Stevenson Fellow
Goldin Institute, Chicago Peace Fellow, Washington Park

Alumni:
Brandeis University, Urban Policy, PhD
University of Cincinnati, Master of Community Planning
Atlanta University, Master of Social Work
University of Denver, Master of Psychology
Washburn University
Ft. Scott Junior College
Topeka High School

Honorary Dr. Sokoni T. Karanja Way

 

East 42nd Street from South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to South Prairie Avenue


Approved: October 2016

Ward: 3
Alderman: Dowell
Neighborhood: Bronzeville

b. 1940 Lathan Johnson. Topeka, Kansas

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categories profile, street
tags streets, 2016, 3rd Ward, blm, Social Services, Honorary Street

Honorary Big Chicks Way

Linda Zabors

Michelle Fire is the owner of Big Chicks lounge and gallery in the Uptown neighborhood, and Tweet, the breakfast place next door. When she started, the space was an old-man’s bar frequented by the residents of nearby subsidized housing. When the artwork, entirely of women, went up the LGBTQ clientele started showing up to drink, eat, and dance. Big Chicks earned the reputation of being a very welcoming and accepting place for everyone. In recent years it has made the list of best neighborhood bars, best gay, and best lesbian bars. In 2018 it was featured in Bon Appetite.

Honorary Big Chicks Way

5000 block of North Sheridan Road

 

Approved: October 2016

Ward: 48
Alderman: Osterman
Neighborhood: Uptown

Source

YouTube playlist: Big Chicks. Honorary Chicago

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categories profile
tags streets, Honorary Street, Local Business, Drink, Women, LGBTQ

Bud Billiken Parade

Linda Zabors

by Bria - Honorary Chicago intern 2016

by Bria - Honorary Chicago intern 2016

BUD BILLIKEN’S 87th ANNUAL PARADE!!

August 13,2016 is the Saturday that you have to come out for! This is something absolutely worth seeing. I feel as though this particular parade is children based. It’s all about displaying why school is so vital to the youth. For 87 years the Bud Billiken Parade has brought the community together to uphold all types of things that are positively beneficial for the children. Being in one of the parades because I academically excelled in grammar school made me realize that events like this helps remind children that what they do in school does not go unnoticed. It is very entertaining. You see kids of all ages doing something that they worked very hard on. From choreographed dances to other things such drill teams, you won’t be upset that you attended.

This years theme for the parade is “Uniting the Community Through Education for 87 years” and the grand marshall is Katherine Y. Branch!

There is a new start time for the 2016 parade. It starts at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 12:30 p.m. Not an early person? Don’t sweat it! The Bud Billiken Parade is also televised! You can watch the whole parade in the comfort of your own bed with just a click of a button. Tune in to channel 7 (ABC 7 Chicago), Saturday morning and watch everything unfold.

 

History of the Bud Billiken Parade

The Chicago Defender is basically how this all started. It was founded by Robert Sengstacke Abbott on May 5, 1905. The point behind the Chicago Defender was to bring light to African American issues. In the year of 1921 the Chicago Defender Jr was produced. This was a section for children! The editor was a young man that goes by the name of Robert Watkins. He was known as Bud Billiken. This section also included an application to Bud Billiken Club. It was named after the Billiken, which is the guardian angel to children according to a chinese legend. In the year of 1929 that is when the parade was born. The main reason for including a parade was to give underprivileged youth to be in the spotlight for once. Let them know that they are important as well. From then on it has flourished into something huge!

 

 

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5 Ways to observe Memorial Day in Chicago

Linda Zabors

In 1868 General John A. Logan, Senator for Illinois, issued an order which established Memorial Day as a day of remembrance for the soldiers lost in the American Civil War.  In recent years it has come to include the lives lost in wars and armed conflicts everywhere.

Annual Memorial Day observance at the General John A. Logan statue in Grant Park

On Memorial Day each year the Chicago Cultural Mile Association hosts a wreath laying ceremony at the Logan equestrian statue in Grant Park near 9th Street in recognition of General John A. Logan's order which initiated the Memorial Day observance which later became a national holiday.

Join Honorary Chicago for a short tour before the ceremony.

 

Wellington-Oakdale Old Glory Marching Society, 
Memorial Day Parade

The WOOGMS parade has been a tradition in the Lakeview neighborhood for more than 50 years.  The motto is "Everyone marches, no one just marches."  Join the Lakeview neighbors and the Jesse White Tumblers and Drum Corp on this and every Memorial Day and Labor Day. 

 

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial on the Chicago Riverwalk

If you have not yet experienced the new riverwalk which follows the south bank of the Chicago river along Wacker Drive, Memorial Day is a fitting time to take in the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial which is on the riverwalk just east of State Street. 

 

City of Chicago Memorial Day Parade

The largest Memorial Day observance in the City is held on the Saturday before Memorial Day. It starts as a wreath laying ceremony at Daley Plaza which leads into a parade down State Street.

 
Photo:  CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo:  CC BY-SA 3.0

Visit a Cemetery on Memorial Day

In the spirit of the original observance most Cemeteries remain open on Memorial Day.  

Here are a two in the Chicago area that have notable Civil War burials.

Rosehill Cemetery is the final resting place of fourteen Union Army Generals and hundreds of soldiers from the Civil War. Part of the administration building houses a Civil War museum.

Oakwoods Cemetery is the location of monument and burial site of thousands of Confederate soldiers who were prisoners of war at Camp Douglas.

More from Honorary Chicago - the who, where, and why of Chicago's brown honorary street signs.  Join us for a tour.  Get the book.

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John A. Logan, founder of Memorial Day

Linda Zabors

John A. Logan equestrian statue in Grant Park, Chicago

John A. Logan equestrian statue in Grant Park, Chicago

John Logan was a Major General in the American Civil War and served under General Ulysses S. Grant, for whom Chicago's Grant Park is named. After the war he served as Senator of Illinois in the US Congress. He and his fellow veterans in Congress established Memorial Day as a Federal holiday to remember the soldiers who died during the war.   

After the end of the Civil War several streets and towns in the United States were named in his honor including: Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood and Logan Boulevard.   

More about General John Logan

His nickname was "Black Jack Logan" and he was not an abolitionist early in his political career.  However, when announced in 1861 that he would join the Union Army under President Abraham Lincoln, whom he had originally opposed, Logan's declaration helped secure Illinois as a free state.  After the war he returned to his seat in the US Congress and became well known for supporting the rights of former slaves and of women, and for establishing services for veterans of the Civil War and their families.

He had been a Vice Presidential candidate but his campaign ticket lost to President Grover Cleveland in the 1884 election. John Logan aspired to the US Presidency and was in line for candidacy, but he did not live to see the next election cycle.

The Logan Museum is located in Murphysboro, Illinois where John Logan was born.

More about Memorial Day

On May 3, 1868 Logan's General Order 11 established May 30, 1868 as the first observance  This was three year after the end of the Civil War. In later years it came to represent soldiers lost in all wars and armed conflicts.  

General John Logan's order suggested that it be a day where people would decorate the graves of the fallen soldiers with flowers.  It was originally known as Decoration Day.

Memorial Day and the red poppy

Photo by Milous/iStock / Getty Images
Photo by Milous/iStock / Getty Images

The red poppy came to be associated with Memorial Day. It symbolized the sacrifice and blood spilled on the battlefield.  Observers might wear the red poppy on Memorial Day or use it to decorate the graves of soldiers.  In 1922 the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization began using the red poppy to raise awareness and to solicit financial support.  The tradition of the red poppy spread. In the US and in parts of Europe the red poppy became associated with fundraising for causes related to fallen soldiers, their families, and the orphans of war.  To this day some organizations give red poppies as tokens of appreciation for charitable donations. 

Memorial Day observances in Chicago

The original order also noted that citizens are free to create their own methods of remembrance and memorial.

Feature post: 5 Ways to Observe Memorial Day in Chicago

The Chicago Cultural Mile Association host a wreath laying ceremony at the John A. Logan statue in Grant Park near 9th Street every year on Memorial Day.

Honorary Chicago gives tours of Logan Square and the Cultural Mile to commemorate Memorial Day.

 

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