About the BMRC

The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is a Chicago-based membership association of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions.The BMRC’s mission is to connect all who seek to document, share, understand and preserve Black experiences. It is the vision of BMRC to be essential to promoting discovery, preservation, and use of Black historical collections.

Through consortial programs, the BMRC aids in expanding broad access to its members’ holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. The BMRC is located at the University of Chicago, which serves as the Black Metropolis Research Consortium’s host institution and fiscal agent.

History

The BMRC was initiated in the spring of 2006 at a meeting of chief executives from fifteen Chicago area institutions. Dr. Danielle Allen, then serving as Dean of the Humanities at the University of Chicago, convened the meeting to discuss forms of collaboration that might support African American studies in the Chicago area. After a year of consortium construction and governance development, the BMRC was launched on July 1, 2006, with the appointment of its first steering committee and the election of its first board of directors.

Since its founding in 2006, the BMRC has complete two major archival management projects making previously “hidden” collections available for researchers, scholars, and artists. The Consortium believes that web-based research tools provide an excellent opportunity for broadening access to unique primary source materials held in its members’ collections.

Host Institution

The BMRC is hosted by the University of Chicago. Founded in 1890 and located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL, the University of Chicago serves as one of the world’s most preeminent academic and research institutions. Across the University’s Chicago and international campuses, its undergraduate program and six professional schools for graduate research, and affiliations with numerous research laboratories, the University of Chicago has established itself as an institution driving academic study and research forward. It is for these reasons that the University makes an ideal host of the BMRC, providing us with the ability to pursue our mission of promoting and making readily accessible, the history of the African Diaspora and Chicago.