Title:  Black Women Emerging


Site:  4120 S. Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago


Artist:  Justine DeVan


Community Participants: Midas Wilson, James Harrel, and Larry Simms and other local residents


Sponsors:  Chicago Mural Group


Year:  1977, restored 2001


Scale:  754 square feet


Materials:  Acrylic paint on concrete


Information:  Created with the help of local residents by an artist seen as one of the mothers of the mural movement, the piece begins with images of an African dancer adorned with cultural emblems and a group of women (one bearing a rifle) rallying around a liberation flag. This mural calls on women to summon their ancestral strength in the struggle to gain access to all vocations, symbolized by a diploma, a caduceus, and scales of justice. Within a key representing domestic servitude, a woman breaks her broom, liberating herself from menial work in order to pursue higher goals.