What will your legacy be?

February 2, 2007 9:01 AM CST By Dr. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs

CHICAGO — A founder of one of the oldest African-American history museums in the country has died.

A spokesman for the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Raymond Ward, says Margaret Burroughs died in her sleep at her Chicago home Sunday morning, Nov. 21.

The Associated Press reports President Barack Obama said in a statement that Burroughs was “widely admired for her contributions to American culture as an esteemed artist, historian, educator, and mentor.”

Burroughs founded the museum with her husband and others on Chicago’s South Side in 1961.

The museum has pieces of art, exhibits on civil rights and a display on Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. It was named after Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, widely regarded as Chicago’s first permanent resident.

The following is a brief biography about Burroughs, along with her poem, “What Will Your Legacy Be?” originally published by this publication in 2007.

Internationally prominent as an artist, educator and writer, Margaret Burroughs is renowned as the founder, along with her late husband, Charles, of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. Opened as a modest display in the couple’s South Side house in 1961 as the Ebony Museum of African American History, the collected artifacts expressed Burroughs’ commitment to exploring and sharing the cultural heritage of African Americans.

Born on Nov. 1, 1917, in St. Rose Parish, La., Margaret Burroughs graduated from Chicago Teachers’ College in 1937 and then received an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1948. During the ’40s she taught art in Chicago elementary schools, and published her first children’s book, “Jasper, the Drummin’ Boy.”

In 1967, she and Dudley Randall edited an anthology called “For Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm X” and published several volumes of her own poetry.

Burroughs’ art works have been exhibited internationally.

In her biography of Burroughs, writer Marion Tumbleweed Beach describes this vibrant, gifted woman as an “African American and citizen of the world … a universal woman with golden fingers that capture time, human passions and record the landmarks of the triumphs, foibles, and calamities of the African American people. These golden fingers can sketch, chisel, tie, brush, carve, mold, or write while she sits visiting with friends, attending meetings in a corporate board room, on an airplane, train, or even on the back of a camel. She has a high level of controlled energy that enables her to create quality art while making it all look so easy to do.”

Although Burroughs has worked in sculpture, painting and many other art forms throughout her career, it is her exceptional skill as a printmaker that has earned her a place within the history of art. For many years, she worked with linoleum block prints to create images evocative of African American culture.

Burroughs’ work has been featured in exclusive shows at the Corcoran Art Galleries in Washington, D.C., and at the Studio Museum in New York. She has served as art director for the Negro Hall of Fame and has illustrated many books. She did her own illustrations for her celebrated poem “What Shall I Tell My Children Who are Black?”

In 1975 she received the President’s Humanitarian Award and in 1977 was named one of Chicago’s Most Influential Women by the Chicago Defender. February 1, 1986, was proclaimed “Dr. Margaret Burroughs Day” in Chicago by Mayor Harold Washington. Today, she remains active in the institutions that she created in her lifetime.

At 90, she recently visited Venezuela, in part to witness the Bolivarian Revolution and its impact on Afro-Venezuelans.

Burroughs, who wrote the poem “What will your legacy be?” for all young people to consider the dignity and contributions African Americans have given to humanity — and to consider their own contribution to society — is available for speaking engagements.

“I wish my art to speak not only for my people but for all humanity … my subject matter is social commentary and seeks to improve the condition of life for all people,” Dr. Burroughs once said.