In the late 1960s, the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party distributed free breakfast to schoolchildren at a youth services center in North Lawndale.
On Sunday, several former chapter members gathered at the center over collard greens, chicken thighs and macaroni to celebrate the organization being permanently written into the history books.
In the coming months, commemorative plaques will be placed outside the center, along with 11 other sites in Chicago and one in Peoria associated with the Black Panthers.
Thanks to three years of rigorous documentation by local activists, locations significant to the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. It’s the first listing on the register for the Black political organization, according to a statement by the Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Society.
Together, the 13 sites will make up a heritage trail.
“Each place that we’re going to have one of these little markers is a reminder for young people. They don’t know the power that they have,” said Billy “Che” Brooks. Now 76 years old, he began the North Lawndale breakfast program and was named the deputy education minister of Illinois’ chapter in his early 20s.