Margaret T. G. Burroughs
Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs was a prominent African American artist, educator, and cultural advocate born on November 1, 1917, in St. Rose, Louisiana. She graduated from Chicago Teachers' College in 1937 and began her career teaching art in Chicago elementary schools during the 1940s. Burroughs co-founded the Chicago South Side Community Art Center, the first institution of its kind in the U.S., and later established the DuSable Museum of African American History with her husband. Initially opened in their home in 1961, the museum became a vital resource for African American culture and history, housing a permanent collection of over 13,000 artifacts. Burroughs was also instrumental in founding several organizations, including the National Conference of Artists and the Association of African American Museums. As a talented printmaker, her works often depicted significant figures in African American history, and she published multiple volumes of poetry throughout her career. Recognized for her contributions to art and education, Burroughs received numerous accolades and continued to engage with her community until her later years. Her literary work, including the celebrated collection "What Do I Tell My Children Who Are Black?", reflects her commitment to exploring heritage and cultural identity.
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Subject Terms
Margaret T. G. Burroughs
Museum Founder
- Born: November 1, 1917
- Birthplace: St. Rose, Louisiana
Biography
Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs was born in St. Rose, Louisiana, on November 1, 1917. She graduated from Chicago Teachers’ College in 1937, and in the 1940’s she taught art in Chicago elementary schools. In 1947 she published her first children’s book, Jasper, the Drummin’ Boy. In 1948 she received her M.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago.
At the age of twenty-two, Burroughs helped found the Chicago South Side Community Art Center, a gallery and studio space for aspiring artists that was the first institution of its kind in the United States. In 1959 she founded the National Conference of Artists. With her husband, Charles, she established the DuSable Museum of African American History, the first museum in the United States that focused on the collection and exhibition of African American history and culture. Initially called the Ebony Museum of African American History, the museum opened in the Burroughs’ home on Chicago’s South Side in 1961. Burroughs was also a founder of the Association of African American Museums.
In 1967 Burroughs and Dudley Randall edited an anthology of poetry called For Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm X. Burroughs also published several volumes of her own poetry. Her works of art in diverse media have been exhibited internationally. Among her art forms are sculpture and painting, but she is said to have earned her place in art history with her skill as a printmaker. She has worked with linoleum block prints to evoke images of African American culture and her work depicts Crispus Attucks, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and other prominent African Americans. Burroughs’s art has been featured in exclusive shows at the Corcoran Art Galleries in Washington, D. C., and at the Studio Museum in New York City. She has served as art director for the Negro Hall of Fame and has illustrated many books, including her own,What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black?
From 1969 to 1979, Burroughs was professor of humanities at Kennedy-King College in Chicago. In 1975 she received the President’s Humanitarian Award and was named one of Chicago’s Most Influential Women by The Chicago Defender in 1977. Mayor Harold Washington proclaimed February 1, 1986, Dr. Margaret Burroughs Day in Chicago.
The museum which first occupied the ground floor of the Burroughs’ home has moved to its own building in Chicago’s Washington Park. It has become an internationally recognized resource for African American art. The DuSalbe Museum also hosts various educational programs and houses a permanent collection of more than 13,000 artifacts, artworks, and books. Many of these were gathered by Burroughs from her travels to the Caribbean and to more than a dozen African nations.
Burroughs remained active in the institutions she created. In her eighty-sixth year she produced Life with Margaret: The Official Autobiography of Dr. Margaret T. G. Burroughs. Here she looked back to reveal and explore her life, struggles, abilities, and opinions. She received the NCA Institution Builder’s Award at the age of eighty- seven.
Burroughs’s most celebrated piece of writing is her first collection of poetry, What Do I Tell My Children Who Are Black? In it she defines her work and her legacy: “I must find the truth of heritage for myself/ And pass it on to them… . For it is the truth that will make us free.”