BLACK REPRESENTATION AT THE 1940
AMERICAN NEGRO EXPOSITION
ABOUT
A Labor of Love
James W. Washington, the “Father of the Exposition.” After the close of the Exposition, he formed the American Boystown Corporation to construct Boy’s Town, a home and school near Momence, Illinois, to care for and train underprivileged boys of all races and creeds (like the more famous Boy’s Town in Nebraska). Construction was about to begin at the time of his death in 1944.
ABOUT
A Labor of Love
Truman K. Gibson, Jr., an attorney, and the executive director of the Exposition, died at the age of 93 in 2005. Gibson is regarded as one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement and served on the “Black Cabinet” of Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. The Black Cabinet was a group of African Americans first assembled by Roosevelt in 1933 to serve as public policy advisors.
