Many people, however, believe that John Kinzie (a white trader) and his family were the first to settle in the area that is now known as Chicago, and it is true that the Kinzie family were Chicago’s first “permanent” European settlers. But the truth is that the Kinzie family purchased their property from a French trader who had purchased it from Jean-Baptiste.
He died in August 1818, and because he was a Black man, many people tried to white wash the story of Chicago’s founding. But in 1912, after the Great Migration, a plaque commemorating Jean-Baptiste appeared in downtown Chicago on the site of his former home.
Now, most African Americans who are from the Chicago are well aware of their city’s founder, and fight to keep his story alive. In fact, in 2009, a bronze bust of Jean-Baptiste was designed and placed in Pioneer Square in Chicago along the Magnificent Mile.
There is also a popular museum in Chicago named after him called the DuSable Museum of African American History!
Watch a brief documentary below about his story:
