Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546515
B M & T ••• September/October 2026 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 17 The Midwest earned its place in history. Black Americans built it - its music, its neighborhoods, its entrepreneurial institutions, its cultural character. When Black meeting planners, corporate executives, and reunion organizers choose this region, they are gathering on ground their ancestors claimed. That legacy stands visible today. The Motown Museum in Detroit holds the room where a movement was born. The Madam Walker Legacy Center in Indianapolis rose from the vision of America's first self-made female millionaire. Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood carries a century of Black intellectual and artistic power within its blocks. Kansas City's 18th & Vine Jazz District still breathes the sound that shaped American music. The story continues across every state in this guide. Milwaukee's America's Black Holocaust Museum anchors a city built on labor and legacy. The river beside Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center once marked the boundary between bondage and freedom. Minneapolis carries a Black arts tradition that fills its galleries and stages year round. St. Louis gave the world blues, bebop, and a hunger for justice that never quieted. This guide belongs to you - the planner, the executive, the organizer who knows where you meet matters as much as what you decide there. Chicago city downtown skyline skyscraper BY CHERAY O'NEAL