This session explores how early Midwest cities often overlooked - and at times deliberately erased - the presence and contributions of Black saloonkeepers in shaping local alcohol economies. Centered on Chicago, it brings together evidence from historic newspapers, city directories, police records, and genealogical research to shed light on the lives and work of Black entrepreneurs in the saloon trade.

Drawing on the idea of the “urban commons,” the lecture from Onteya Zachary highlights the neighborhoods and gathering places where Black communities built social networks, created opportunity, and carved out space within a rapidly changing city. These saloons were more than places to drink—they were sites of connection, creativity, and economic activity. 

By revisiting familiar stories about the rise of urban saloons, this session challenges the notion that these spaces were driven solely by European influence. Instead, it reveals the important and often unrecognized role Black saloonkeepers and their communities played in building and sustaining these economies - contributions that continue to shape cities like Chicago today.

This talk invites a broader, more inclusive view of alcohol history, one that recognizes the diverse people and communities who have long been part of its story.

Onteya Zachary is a Midwest-aficionado, creative writer and filmmaker, and third year Ph.D. student in Geography at the University of Minnesota. Grounded by her upbringing in Chicago, Onteya is keenly aware of and intellectually curious about the meaning and causes of injustice in urban cities, especially pertaining to the historical and present-day alcohol industry.  As the Beer Culture Center’s inaugural Beer History and Culture Fellow, Onteya spent a month in tenure as a fellow at the Newberry Library scouring the archives for signs of Black life, errancy, and possibility within the alcohol industry of Chicago and the greater Midwest. As a part of her dissertation and greater professional work, Onteya is interested in documenting and archiving people with, in the name of Charles Gordone’s historically award-winning Black saloon drama, “No Place to Be Somebody.”

THIS SESSION IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY:

ERIC JOHNSON + ANISSA LISTAK