Chicago - Built By All

“Chicago: Built by All”

Presented by the Westside Media Project

Chicago is more than a city—it’s a living story of migration, resistance, and resilience. In this dynamic new video series, Chicago: Built by All, we uncover the often overlooked chapters of how immigrants, migrants, and refugees from around the globe helped shape—and continue to define—this city’s soul. From Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haitian of African descent and Chicago’s first non-Indigenous settler, to the latest wave of Venezuelan asylum seekers arriving by bus in 2022, this series tells the real story of how Chicago became a sanctuary for so many.

Each episode explores a pivotal era of migration:

• European settlement after the Great Fire

• The African-American Great Migration

• The rise of Chinatown amid exclusion

• Latino migrations shaped by labor, policy, and struggle

• Recent arrivals from Central America, Venezuela, and Ukraine

  
  

  All within the context of a city that proudly declared itself a Sanctuary City—yet now finds that identity challenged.

Viewers will hear powerful personal stories and gain insight into the systems that have both welcomed and excluded. Through it all, we ask a simple question: What does it mean to be a sanctuary in 2025—and who gets to belong?

Join us online as we trace Chicago’s rich migrant history and uplift voices often left out of the headlines. Share your story. Ask hard questions. Be part of the conversation.

Your city. Your history. Your voice. #ChicagoBuiltByAll #SanctuaryCitySeries #WestsideMediaProject