Margaret Burroughs became a cultural leader and role model by dedicating her life to educating others about and advocating for African American art.  Born in St. Rose, Louisiana in 1917, Burroughs and her family followed the Great Migration north to Chicago in 1922, in search of a better quality of life. She made the most of many valuable opportunities throughout her lifetime, beginning at Englewood High School, where she first became interested in art, and became the youngest member of George Neal’s Art Crafts Guild.  She later studied at the Chicago Normal School. 

At age 22, she founded the South Side Community Art Center, a community organization that continues to serve as a gallery and workshop studio for artists and students.  In the early 1950’s, Burroughs started the Lake Meadows Art Fair where African Americans could showcase and sell their art.  Burroughs lived in Mexico for a time, where she studied printmaking and mural painting with the Taller Editorial de Grafica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop) under Leopoldo Mendez, a prominent printmaker of the Diego Rivera circle. When she returned, she and her husband Charles founded the DuSable Museum of African American History in their living room.  It remained there for nearly a decade until it moved to its own building in Chicago’s Washington Park.

Throughout her career, Burroughs worked in many mediums, showing special facility in watercolors and linocut printmaking. For many years, she worked with linoleum block prints to create images evocative of African American culture. She is also an accomplished poet and author of children’s books. . In 1975 she received the President’s Humanitarian Award, and in 1977 was distinguished as one of Chicago’s Most Influential Women by the Chicago Defender. February 1, 1986 was proclaimed “Dr. Margaret Burroughs Day” in Chicago by late Mayor Harold Washington. Burroughs passed away on November 21, 2010.

Her work is found in the collections of Howard University, Alabama State Normal School, Atlanta University, DuSable Museum of African American History, Johnson Publishing Company, and the Oakland Museum.