​In 1977, the Black Theatre Alliance was founded by Abena Joan Brown, Okoro Harold Johnson, Useni Perkins, and Pemon Rami, which focused on providing resources, community support, and visibility for the Black Theater in Chicago. In 1990, the Black Theatre Alliance changed its name to the African American Arts Alliance to expand its reach in the arts community however, they ceased operations shortly thereafter. Seeing a gap and a great need for community interaction and development, Jackie Taylor, Joan Gray, Chuck Smith, and Ron O.J. Parsons came together and, in 1997, incorporated a new African American Arts Alliance to continue the work of the original Alliance to serve the needs of Black performing, visual, literary, technical and design art forms. Since then, these incredible leaders and artists cultivated and supported Black artists and organizations by providing programs and services to increase the interaction, collaboration, and communication within the Black Arts Community. The vision that these leaders saw is why we are here today. In the same way that they were the voice of the time for our community, the board of directors was ready to pass on the torch of leadership to continue the legacy of the Alliance for the next generation. The new President and Vice-President of the Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago are  Charlique C. Rolle and Vershawn Sanders-Ward, respectively.