Artist of the Month - Mac Blackout
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Mac Blackout from Chicago is the December Artist of the Month. He works in various mediums, murals, music, painting on canvas, and drawing, which are all his favorite depending on what he is trying to achieve with a particular piece.
How long have you been an artist or when did you start?
I’ve been making art since I can remember. My mother, Liz McKenzie is also an artist and was an art teacher in Bedford, IN for 40 years. Needless to say I was exposed to art at an early age and my interest was encouraged as I grew into adulthood.
TBT: Lewis and Clark build Camp River Dubois
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On Dec. 12, 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark built Camp River Dubois near present day Wood River in Madison County.
Lewis and Clark, along with their Corps of Discovery, spent several months in what would become the state of Illinois, originally crossing into the territory with 20 men on Nov. 11, 1803.
They stayed for two days at Fort Massac, near Metropolis, where they resupplied and solicited volunteers to assist them on their journey. Among those who joined the expedition was George Drouillard, a man of Shawnee and French descent who became the party’s best hunter and interpreter.
Lewis and Clark’s team traveled through southern Illinois along the Ohio River and then north along the Mississippi River, stopping in Kaskaskia on Dec. 28 to recruit 12 more volunteers before continuing to present-day Wood River to set up camp.
African-American activist Fred Hampton
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African-American activist Fred Hampton, who led the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, was born in 1948 and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood.
Hampton was a bright student who graduated from Proviso East High School in 1966. He attended the YMCA Community College in Chicago and enrolled in the pre-law program at Triton College.
While in college Hampton became in involved in the civil rights movement by joining the West Suburban branch of the NAACP. His skill set was so advanced the branch offered him the position of Youth Council president. As president, Hampton brought hundreds of young people together and made sure the city started catering to the needs of young African-Americans.
TBT: Illinois' Northwest Expressway renamed after President John F. Kennedy
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On Nov. 29, 1963, one week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Chicago City Council voted to rename the Northwest Expressway after the 35th president.
During Kennedy’s race for the White House, he made numerous trips to Illinois and called the expressway “one of the greatest highways in the United States.” Construction of the highway was completed Nov. 5, 1960, just three days after Kennedy won the presidential election.
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