Sunday at 9: 40 a. m. ET, a new set of March cultural events in Chicago is confirmed: “The Women Who Built Chicago, ” a limited-run bus tour led by urban historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas in partnership with Ancestry, will open to the public on March 21, 22 and 28. Still, whether is today international women’s day remains unconfirmed in available materials.
Shermann “Dilla” Thomas and Ancestry Launch ‘Women Who Built Chicago’
The tour is a limited March offering tied to Women’s History Month and is designed to spotlight nine Chicago women whose work advanced education, civil rights, the arts and health care. Organizers combine Ancestry records with physical historical locations, creating a route that connects documented archives to places where the city’s history unfolded.
Planned logistics include five stops with Thomas providing on-the-ground context supported by historical records uncovered with Ancestry’s help. The tour meets at Chicago Women’s Park & Garden, located at 1801 S. Indiana Ave., establishing a starting point in a venue explicitly named for the city’s women.
Confirmed figures featured on the route include singer Dinah Washington; Margaret Burroughs, co-founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History; and entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist Madame C. J. Walker. These names illustrate the cross-section of culture, education and business the tour aims to elevate.
Is Today International Women’s Day Remains Unconfirmed in Event Materials
For readers asking “is today international women’s day, ” the public materials associated with these Chicago events do not specify that detail. What is confirmed is that the tour is scheduled for March 21, 22 and 28, aligning the program with Women’s History Month rather than a single-day observance.
That said, the clearest resolution to the date question would be an official observance listing or confirmation from relevant civic bodies. Until such a listing is issued, the only fixed markers available here are the Chicago tour dates, which begin on March 21, and the stated emphasis on monthlong recognition.
Ancestry Mural at 38 W. Grand Ave. Honors Haven and Ding Lin
As part of the broader initiative, an Ancestry-sponsored mural has been installed at 38 W. Grand Ave. Downtown, spotlighting Mary Emerson Haven, founder of YWCA Chicago, and physician Margaret Hie Ding Lin. The mural ties specific addresses and names to documented community impact, including Ding Lin’s work delivering babies for Chicago’s Chinese community when discrimination kept many Asian women from hospitals.
The Ancestry project uses historical records—census documents, yearbooks and newspaper archives—to surface women whose contributions were minimized or omitted in official histories. Project materials note that many documents reduced women’s roles to narrow or domestic labels or listed them only by a husband’s name, obscuring leadership, unpaid labor and institutional founding work that the tour and mural now bring forward.
Still, the immediate takeaway for planning is concrete: the bus tour is open to the public for three dates in March, with Shermann “Dilla” Thomas guiding attendees through five stops supported by archival research. Meeting point details are confirmed for Chicago Women’s Park & Garden at 1801 S. Indiana Ave.
The next fixed milestone is March 21 in Chicago, when the bus tour opens to the public; no start time is listed in the provided materials. If an official observance is confirmed for today, that confirmation would settle the is today international women’s day question for readers coordinating March activities.
