Great Northern Migration Monument.

Great Northern Migration Monument

This large bronze statue of a man stands on a mound that seems to have grown into the man's suit. Both the mound and the suit appear to be made of hundreds of worn-out shoe soles. Reminds one of fish scales -- or the leafy toga of the Jolly Green Giant. That comparison was probably not the intent of artist Alison Saar.

The sculpture, completed in 1996, shows the man carrying a battered suitcase in one hand, waving with the other, and facing northward (also like the Jolly Green Giant), having just arrived in Chicago as part of the "Great Migration" of African-Americans who fled the segregated South in the early 20th century. The bollards surrounding the statue resemble old-fashioned travel trunks, textured like the tin ceilings of that time.

Great Northern Migration Monument

Address:: 345 E. Eastgate Place, Chicago, IL
Directions:: In the median of S. Martin Luther King Jr Drive, midway between E. 25th and 26th Sts, at the intersection of E. Eastgate Place.
RA Rates:: Worth a Detour

Nearby Offbeat Places

Monument to the Fascist Sky King, Chicago, IL - 1 mi.

Man-Eaters of Tsavo, Chicago, IL - 1 mi.

Towering Tomb of The Little Giant, Chicago, IL - 1 mi.

In the region:

Man Sits on Giant Typewriter, Munster, IN - 22 mi.

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