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Christmas in Black Chicago

CTL-E-1285 · Practice · other · 1916–2026

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

Christmas as family-reunion season: Great Migration families spent heavily to travel home or gather kin; distinct food, gifts, worship, and Black Santa imagery; Charlemae Rollins's 1963 anthology 'Christmas Gif'' preserved Black Christmas stories and songs.

Notes

Merged into canonical KG 2026-10-03 from LIFE-001; source entity IDs: CTL-DR-LIFE-001:CTL-LIFE-E-019; source research type(s): practice.

Sources

Record CTL-E-1285 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 3 sources (1 primary) · CTL research: LIFE-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite this record

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Christmas in Black Chicago (CTL-E-1285),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1285/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Christmas in Black Chicago (CTL-E-1285).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1285/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Christmas in Black Chicago (CTL-E-1285) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1285/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Christmas in Black Chicago (CTL-E-1285).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1285/

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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.

The Chess Records studio booth during restoration, Chicago
The Chess Records studio booth during restoration, ChicagoPhoto: get directly down, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ida B. Wells — portrait from ‘Women of Distinction’ (1893)
Ida B. Wells — portrait from ‘Women of Distinction’ (1893)Photo: Public Domain (from ‘Women of Distinction,’ 1893), via Wikimedia Commons
Jacking up a car on the repair tracks at an Illinois Central Railroad yard, Chicago, Chicago, 1942
Jacking up a car on the repair tracks at an Illinois Central Railroad yard, Chicago, Chicago, 1942Photo: Jack Delano, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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