Margaret Burroughs – What is Africa to Me?

Margaret Burroughs

Download Margaret Burroughs: What is Africa to Me? (9:58)

Margaret Burroughs, founder of the DuSable Museum of African-American history, poet, visual artist, educator, and arts organizer, was born in 1917 in St. Rose, Louisiana, near New Orleans. At the age of five, she was brought by her parents to Chicago where she grew up, was educated, and where her career has unfolded.

Burroughs attended the public schools of Chicago, including the Chicago Teacher’s College. In 1946, she received a BA in education and in 1948, an MA in education from the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1940 to 1968 she was a teacher in the Chicago public schools and, subsequently, a professor of humanities at Kennedy-King College in Chicago (1969–1979).

In 1961, Burroughs founded the DuSable Museum of African-American History. She served as a director of the museum until her appointment as a Commissioner of the Chicago Park District in 1985.

Burroughs has a national reputation as a visual artist and as an arts organizer. Her long exhibition record as a painter and printmaker began in 1949 and has included exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. A retrospective of her work was held in Chicago in 1984. As an organizer she has been associated with the founding and conduct of a number of arts organizations.