TRC Founding and History
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The Renaissance Collaborative, Inc. (TRC) began as a way to save the Historic Former Wabash YMCA from demolition. In 1992, Patricia Abrams, together with the help of four ecumenical historic churches located in the Bronzeville community of Chicago, came together to save this historic landmark which had been the hub of Black civic and social activity in the early 1900s.
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Wabash YMCA
During the Great Migration, the Wabash Y served as the orientation center for new African Americans migrating from the South to the North seeking a better way of life by offering temporary accommodation, job placement, and other services.
One of the great historic legacies of the Wabash Y is as the birthplace of Black History Month. Dr. Carter G. Woodson formulated the idea for a Negro History Week here in 1926, which became a month-long celebration in 1976.
Declining membership and the deterioration of the building led to its closing in 1981 when it was bought for $1 by St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The nearly $11 million restoration project was completed in 2000 and TRC's four founding churches remain as stewards of TRC's mission today.
One of the great historic legacies of the Wabash Y is as the birthplace of Black History Month. Dr. Carter G. Woodson formulated the idea for a Negro History Week here in 1926, which became a month-long celebration in 1976.
Declining membership and the deterioration of the building led to its closing in 1981 when it was bought for $1 by St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The nearly $11 million restoration project was completed in 2000 and TRC's four founding churches remain as stewards of TRC's mission today.
"Mind, Body, and Spirit" Mural
The restoration included a mural painted by William Edouard Scott in 1936 entitled "Mind, Body, and Spirit," commemorating the guiding purposes of YMCA programs. Now considered one of the most important African American artists of his generation, Scott chose to paint scenes infused with optimism and hope for black Americans and rejected the more common images of them as laborers and slaves.
