The Encyclopedia

CultureTechLens is a free online encyclopedia of Black Chicago and the global Black diaspora — its people, places, music, churches, newspapers, and neighborhoods, from the South Side to the diaspora. Every entry is written from sources and cited, so students, teachers, and researchers everywhere can use it. Published by a Chicago nonprofit — a 501(c)(3). Black Cultural Intelligence.

The Encyclopedia is the record itself — every entry written from sources, cited, and graded, and kept open to every reader. Its two companion parts do the supporting work: Research & Analysis investigates, and the Research Lab publishes the datasets, maps, and methods underneath.

Entity DirectoryEvery record in the knowledge graph — 4,111 entities: people, places, organizations, and works, each with named sources. Cited Photo ArchiveRights-cleared photographs of Black Chicago, each published with its full evidence card and credit. CollectionsThe record gathered by subject — house music, Bronzeville, the Black press, Black hospitals, and more. ListsCurated lists across the record, each entry linked back to its sourced page. The Reading RoomHow teachers, journalists, students, and funders use the record: what to cite, what to download, what to check. Reference SheetsOne-page reference sheets, built to be cited. The Knowledge GraphThe encyclopedia as one connected dataset — published openly by the Lab. The ArchiveEverything CultureTechLens has published, kept like an archive: dated, cited, graded.

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “The Encyclopedia,” 2026-10-26. https://culturetechlens.com/encyclopedia/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, Bronzeville, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: Legimet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Door of the historic Chicago Defender Building, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 35th Street Bronzeville CTA station, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: vxla (Eric Pancer), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.