Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive Renamed to Honor Black Settler
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
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Chicago (AP) -- Chicago’s City Council voted Friday to change the name of Lake Shore Drive to the name of a Black man recognized as a key settler of the city.
In a compromise, aldermen voted to rename one of the city's iconic roads to Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive. DuSable, a native of Haiti, is considered Chicago’s first permanent, non-indigenous settler. He had a successful trading post in the late 1700s. He died in 1818. Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833 and as a city four years later.