Central Station Fragments

Central Station Fragments. . , These carved granite fragments are from the Illinois Central Station which stood at the southwest edge of Grant Park for more than 75 years. Bradford Lee Gilbert, a prolific architect of American railroad buildings, designed the massive Romanesque style structure. Completed in 1893, the station accommodated visitors who thronged to Chicago to attend the World's Columbian Exposition. The station possessed special significance to more than 500,000 African-Americans who left the rural south to settle here between 1916 and 1970. Considered Chicago's “Black Ellis Island,” the building represented the hope of a new life. , “One-Way Ticket” , by Langston Hughes, 1949 , , I pick up my life , And take it with me , And I put it down in , Chicago, Detroit, , Buffalo, Scranton, , Any place that is North and East, , And not Dixie. , , I pick up my life , And take it on the train , To Los Angeles, Bakersfield, , Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake, , Any place that is , North and West, , And not South. , , I am fed up , With Jim Crow laws, , People who are cruel , And afraid, , Who lynch and run, , Who are scared of me , And me of them. , , I pick up my life , And take it away , On a one-way ticket, , Gone up North, , Gone out West, , Gone!