Chatham is one of Chicago’s most historic neighborhoods.
The community, located on the city’s Southeast Side, has been home to one of Chicago’s most prominent middle-class African American communities since the late 1950s.
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It was considered a Black mecca for businesses. At one time, Chatham was home to multi-million dollar Black-owned businesses like the Johnson Products Company and Seaway National Bank.
In her latest edition of “Our Chicago: Neighborhood Walk,” Val Warner took a tour of Chatham with one of its most prominent former residents, ABC7 Chicago anchor Cheryl Burton. It’s a community that Warner is familiar with as well. As a child living in Los Angeles, Warner would spend her summers in Chatham, visiting her grandmother.
Burton, whose family moved to Chatham in 1958, told Warner that Chatham made her the person that she is today.
“Chatham is in my blood,” Burton said. “It’s shaped our lives.”
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