A Legend Has Passed Away

Obsidian just lost one of its own Elders and the Black Diaspora lost one of its greatest keepers of memory. He allowed The Obsidian Collection Archives to use his good name to build our organization from the ground up. When you're new, establishments look for the familiar. Everyone knew Chuck. And he told us everything about Chicago. This is why we must keep digitizing our conversations with the Elders in our lives before their mental libraries close for good.

Yesterday, Chicago lost a legend. Charles "Chuck" Bowen passed away. We were lucky to have him with us for more than 90 years. Black Chicago lost one of its most influential leaders, one of those invisible men who did more to shape Black Chicago in its absolute heyday than most people will ever know. He came from a generation that bragged about impact on the community, not selfish material gain.

If you Googled him almost nothing would come up. He preferred it that way. He was in every room where things happened. For a while he worked at City Hall and cars used to line up on his block just to try to catch him on his way in. If you didn't already know who he was, you didn't need to know.

●      He came into political prominence in his twenties when he delivered 600 votes out of a tight community in Bronzeville. The political leaders took notice and invited him into the mix.

●      When he was 26 he worked as sort of a "First Lieutenant" for Alderman William Dawson and sat in on the meeting between Mayor Daley (The Boss) and Alderman Dawson that led to a massive acceleration in Black residency and Black home ownership on Chicago's south side. Numbers that haven't been matched since.

●      He told me about one of the greatest Black Aldermen in Chicago's history, Alderman Ben "Big Cat" Lewis. He and Alderman Shaw both spoke to Big Cat the night before his assassination, a loss that stalled development on the West Side for years to come.

●      His favorite photo was from a meeting he attended at 39 years old, when most of the Black power brokers in the city gathered to decide who they would champion as Chicago's first Black mayor. A young Harold Washington is prominent in that photo but it wasn't him yet. Chuck shared replicas of that photo with so many people. One still hangs in the restaurant Pearl's Place today.

●      Few people knew that he was the main advocate for the Bronzeville Military Academy, not only saving it from demolition but securing the millions of dollars needed for its renovation.

●      He and former State Representative Brookins Sr. would wax nostalgic about how they worked with the Post Office to integrate and hire hundreds of Black mail carriers and worked with Commonwealth Edison to hire hundreds of Black meter readers, bringing Black workers into the unions as apprentices and journeymen. Thousands of Black households owe their success to what these two men built.

●      He was known to have every Black clergy member in the city on speed dial. If a message needed to reach the Black community, the fastest way was the Sunday pulpit, and Chuck knew exactly which pulpit to call.

●      He was a prominent and celebrated collector of Black art. His home, one of those beautiful historic mansions in Bronzeville, was filled with fine art, sculpture and commemorative pieces that felt almost majestic to walk through.

●      He formed a friendship decades ago right here in Chicago with a young man who is now the sitting President of Nigeria. That bond never faded and it is one more example of how far Chuck's reach truly went, all the way back to the Motherland.

●      He was one of the founders of the African Festival held every summer in front of the DuSable Museum. For years that event has brought Africa to the south side and now draws thousands of people each summer.

Chuck was like an uncle to me. He was one of Obsidian's first board members and he sold us the oldest policy machine still in existence. I consider myself one of his nieces, and it was Chuck who introduced me to his "nephew" Michael Wright. Mikey, as Chuck called him, just completed a documentary on Chuck's life called "Citizen Bowen." While we were filming we rode around Bronzeville together as he pointed out where every policy wheel used to sit and where the kings once lived. He believed we would carry the legacy of Black excellence in Chicago forward. We will.

Promotional Flyer for the documentary of Charles Bowen's Journey

He was also the man who advocated for me when I wanted Mr. H to sell me the Lu Palmer mansion. Obsidian invested in a Walter Sanford painting so Chicago could see it. Chuck knew Sanford personally and spoke of him with such fondness, how Sanford battled alcoholism, met Picasso and found the inspiration to paint cubism because of it.

Chuck stayed clean as the Board of Health. One time he summoned me to meet him at his house and then left before I even got there because his barber had an opening. I sat on his porch waiting and when he pulled up he said, "Sorry baby. I needed a trim and a shave." Bowen was witty, clever and always laughing. But being heavily influenced by Alderman Dawson, Chuck did not believe in smiling in photos. I told him he looked like a gangster rapper. But Dawson said serious businessmen didn't smile.

When we lose a legacy we also lose a library. Chuck told countless stories about historic Chicago. He knew so many of the players and the details never ran dry. I met Chuck when he was already in his late eighties and he was thrilled with the work we were doing at The Obsidian Collection. Everyone I ever wanted to meet, he had on speed dial. He opened doors without a second of hesitation.

Chuck was from the era of Black Chicagoans who measured their value by political influence and community impact. When they bragged it was about what buildings they helped build, how many jobs they secured or how many voters they got to the polls... My generation brags more about individual gains and materialism. - Angela Ford

I know the tributes will pour in because Chuck had such an important impact on this community. I am glad to know for a fact that he understood how deeply he was loved while he was still here to feel it. Many of his good works will live on in our official archives.

Make sure you are retrieving and recording the great stories from the Elders in your own life. Once they leave this world those libraries close and they never reopen.