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HISTORIC LIBRARY MEMORIES HONORING BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2021

In honor of Black History Month February 2021, we will share a series of memories of special people and special moments relating to Black History that were part of the history of the former Clarence Darrow Branch Library at the Cook County Department of Corrections (CCDOC, i.e, Cook County Jail), a forerunner of The Freadom®️ Road Foundation. 
 
In 1990, as part of  Clarence Darrow Library’s Literacy Rally, attended by over 1,000 detainees of the CCDOC, Dr. Margaret T. Burroughs, founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History, teamed up with her friend Queen Mother Reverend Helen Sinclair, ordained worldwide prison minister and National Director of Jessie “Ma” Houston Prison Outpost of Rainbow Push Coalition, to read aloud poetry written by incarcerated African American women in a poetry writing class taught at the CCDOC by Dr. Margaret Burroughs. 
 
The applause at the conclusion of the reading was thundering.
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Heralds of African American History and Culture, Dr. Margaret T. Burroughs (left) and Queen Mother Reverend Helen Sinclair (right) read aloud poetry by African American women detainees at a literacy rally in 1990.