Who is DuSable?
Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable was a Black Haitian who was Chicago's first settler and citizen outside of the Native-Americans who occupied the area prior to his arrival. Before Chicago was the booming city that it is today, it was a trading center and DuSable operated an elaborate fur-trading post for 20 years during his time in the region.  So strong was his relationship with them, DuSable joined the Potawatomi tribe in order to marry one of its members named Kittihawa.  Jean was so respected among the Potawatomi that he was called "Black Chief" and became a high-ranking member of the tribe.  Jean and Kittihawa had two children, Jean and Suzanne - whose birth is considered the first recorded birth in the Chicago area.  In addition to this "first", the DuSable home was the scene of the first formalized wedding, the site of the first election, and the location where the first Chicago session of court was held.


Why Do We Celebrate Him?
"DuSable achieved, unaided, a position of commercial importance and assured respectability. He was enterprising and industrious, he inspired friendships which were not shaken by fortune's frown, and he commanded the confidence of men in responsible governmental and commercial stations." Or so says Dr. Milo Quaife, the author of ‘Checagou From Indian Wigwam to Modern City 1673-1835’.  Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable was not only a great Black man, but he embodied all that each of us still hopes to achieve.