Chicago murals: Art unites Black and Brown communities in old steel plant's South Chicago neighborhood

A mural in South Chicago celebrates Black and Brown communities working together to revitalize their neighborhood after the century-old U.S. Steel South Works mill was shut down more than 30 years ago.

The image on the west-facing wall of the South Chicago Learning Center, a satellite campus of Olive-Harvey College, shows two hands reaching toward each other: one representing an African American adult, the other a Latino child.

A raised bridge represents the nearby structures that welcome boats traveling between the Calumet River and Lake Michigan. Look closely, and, amid the Chicago skyline that rises in the background, you’ll see it's made up of computer circuit board components.

The adult and child hands represent "knowledge and culture being shared from one generation to the next,” says Basia Brown, director of development for SkyART.

"The books flying through the sky show the power of knowledge set free,” Brown says.

SkyART provides free visual arts classes for young people, with branches in South Chicago and Garfield Park. A class of teenage students painted the mural in 2021 as part of a summer program.

Alnierys Venegas, who was then the director of the South Chicago Learning Center, says the mural was commissioned to honor the neighborhood’s history and show the Learning Center “as a place where local youth and residents can build brighter futures.”

“It was crucial for me to communicate to the South Chicago community that the neighborhood is evolving and that its future can be built right here,” she says.

The students who painted the mural were part of SkyART’s Project 3rd Space, a yearlong program that focuses on the possibilities of being an artist while fostering social, emotional, planning and management skills.

South Chicago resident Angelo Long was part of the group who painted the mural and now is a studio assistant at SkyArt. The program and mural inspired him to work as an illustrator, he says, and this project taught him about collaboration and commitment.

"I learned about my peers, their strengths and their limitations," Long says. "We had a deadline. This felt like real work."

Many of the students who worked on the mural were unfamiliar with South Chicago’s history as a once-booming Rust Belt neighborhood filled with families who worked at the nearby U.S. Steel South Works plant, Brown says.

They know the neighboring 20,000-acre property as it stands now, largely vacant except for a monument to the mill workers and the giant ore wall where freighters once docked. The bustle has been replaced with quiet and dog walkers, fishermen or rock climbers who occasionally frequent the area.

After the steel mill was closed, “South Chicago became a community that is on a long path of rejuvenation,” Brown says.

The students are familiar with South Chicago residents’ pride in their largely African American and Latino community.

The mural “is more than just a work of art — it stands as a powerful symbol of hope, opportunity and the bright future that awaits the youth and residents of South Chicago,” Venegas says.