Sherman “Dilla” Thomas Joins HGSA For Public History Conference

The History Graduate Student Association welcomed Chicago historian Sherman “Dilla” Thomas in addition to local leaders in public history and journalism at their annual conference “History in the World,” which focused on the public history field.

The conference was held Feb. 22-23 in the Corboy Law Center’s scenic Kasbeer Hall. The event featured research presentations by history students from around the country, panel discussions featuring public history experts and a student-led tour of the nearby Driehaus Museum. 

HGSA President Lindsey Meza said this year’s conference built upon the organization’s efforts to further representation and participation in public history. 

“As one of few public history graduate programs in the country, to be able to sponsor this event in a city that is so historically rich is something that is really important to establishing public history and solidifying the link between the public, public history and the academic world,” Meza, a public history masters student, said.

Public history is the practice of applying skills and methods learned in history classrooms in a context outside of academics and can include work in museums, archives, historical societies and neighborhood projects, according to the History Department’s website.

Following the conference’s broader theme of applying public history theory in the world, Thomas was invited to give the keynote address. Thomas discussed the importance of place-based history and how public historians can make lessons about the past more accessible, pulling from his own experience as a prominent TikTok and social media creator.

Thomas — who, with his work, tries to combat the negative stereotypes which circulate about Chicago’s South and West Sides — has amassed 117,000 TikTok followers, while his videos have been viewed over 20 million times, according to his company’s website.

He said he’s only able to do the research for his videos because he was able to access historical papers and research through library database accounts his daughter had while enrolled in college. 

“If you’re not fortunate enough to have a kid at North Carolina A&T where you can get access, then there’s a paywall,” Thomas said during his address. “Now, history is not accessible to the people who live in the spaces that made the history important. So once I get the information, I make a TikTok or Instagram Reel out of it and then it’s free.” 

Thomas emphasized the importance of place-based history, an approach that puts a specific location at the center of the story, when applied to communities which have largely been ignored by mainstream historical scholarship, such as the neighborhoods home to Chicago’s Black and brown communities. 

He pointed to the example of the Chicago Housing Authority’s “Plan for Transformation,” which saw the demolition of the city’s high-rise public housing buildings in the early 2000s, with the promise residents would be relocated into mixed-income affordable units. A 2022 ProPublica investigation found the agency had fallen short in delivering the units it promised, and many families were never resettled. 

“A lot of those people have right to return promises, but if you didn’t know that that’s a thing and now we’re 30 years away from that and nobody’s telling you place-based history then your grandkids don’t know you have a right to return to that place,” Thomas said. “These are why the stories matter.”

Thomas had a closing message for “people born in the ‘80s and the ‘70s.”

“Stop saying you don’t know how to use Instagram, don’t say that anymore,” he said. “Why? Because you know how to drive a stick shift. You know how to program a VCR. You know how to can vegetables. What we need you to do is put your stories on Instagram, encourage your grandparents to do that.”

Thomas also encouraged attendees to donate old family photos or possessions to local historical societies and museums so that history can be preserved and stories can live on forever.

Following Thomas’ speech, the HGSA introduced the weekend’s first panel discussion — Public History Theory in Practice — which included presentations by leaders of Chicago public history organizations who explained the different ways they’ve approached putting together accessible historical exhibits and monuments.

Tiff Beatty, associate director at the National Public Housing Museum which is set to open later this year, opened her presentation by performing a spoken word poem that explored the experiences and traumas of public housing residents during the Plan for Transformation. 

The NPHM is housed in the only remaining building of the Jane Adams Hull House on the Near West Side and seeks to tell the story of people who lived in public housing and those who were displaced during the years of demolition.

“We really want to emphasise not only some of the issues that we’re fighting against but also what we’re fighting for which is community, housing and for everyone to have a place to belong and a place to thrive,” Beatty said.

Beatty said as a spoken word poet she was attracted to the NPHM project because of the opportunity it presented to incorporate the spirit arts and culture in the telling of historical stories.

Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay, co-founder of the Chicago Race Riot 1919 Commemoration Project, took the mic next to discuss the work his organization is doing in building remembrance of the events of 1919 in Chicago. 

Cosey-Gay said the project picked up steam after he and his partners were included in a youth violence prevention collective in 2019. He said while they were searching for ways to uncover the stories that tell the history of structural violence in society, they took inspiration from the way Germany has grappled with the atrocities of their past through wide-spread public memorials. 

At first, the Commemoration Project led bike tours around the cities with stops at significant locations of the 1919 race riots, including where Black individuals were murdered. 

“The ultimate aim was to use public art as a way to help people hear about this history, maybe not from a book, maybe not from a lecture but just from art,” Cosey-Gay said. 

So far, the group has installed five markers at the sites where Black Chicagoans were killed during the riot, and Cosey-Gay said they hope to eventually place 38 markers in total throughout the city. He said universities can make important contributions to projects like these. 

“It’s very important for individuals that are connected to universities to understand your role in helping build capacity and understanding it can’t be led by you,” Cosey-Gay said. “Community partners need to tell you what’s important.” 

Chief of Interpretation at the Pullman National Historical Park Sue Bennet gave the panel’s final presentation, in which she discussed her work putting together exhibits for the National Park Service at the Pullman National Historic Monument. 

Designated in 2015, the Pullman NHP includes several historic buildings which made up the Pullman railcar factory and planned community in what is now Chicago’s South Side Pullman neighborhood. 

Founded by George Pullman in 1880, Pullman, Ill. was one of America’s first company towns and an early example of strict community planning. Pullman, who made his fortune selling luxury railcars, owned and rented all the town’s houses to the workers who staffed his factory. In 1894 a strike broke out at the Pullman plant which soon spread to railworkers across the country, according to the park’s website.

As a Ranger for the National Park Department, Bennet said the task of putting together exhibits at Pullman presented an interesting challenge of telling the story in an unbiased way while not intruding on the work being done by community led historical groups. 

Throughout the weekend, students who’d traveled from across the country presented their papers and research in the public history field. Jay Bateman, a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, traveled to Chicago to discuss his research on the repercussions of institutionalized racism in the early years of the U.S. Air Force. He said he chose to attend the conference because he was interested in its public history theme.

“Looking at history in public history in practice and how that relates to built up communities as well as understanding the impacts of race and social justice,” Bateman said. “I think the panel presentations so far have been phenomenal, I think it’s been a really good opportunity to get a lot of different perspectives.”