Mention the name Bishop Ford to most Chicagoans, and they'll think of I-94 traffic reports rather than the influential South Side clergyman who lent the freeway his name.

But starting this weekend, supporters of Louis Henry Ford hope to reclaim the memory of the man with a new exhibit at the DuSable Museum of African-American History, depicting the remarkable story of one of the city and nation's great Pentecostal leaders.

Ford began as a street preacher and became a religious and political powerhouse, a man who had the ear of mayors and presidents. Eventually, he rose to become the international leader of the Church of God in Christ, the world's largest African-American Pentecostal denomination with more than 6 million members in 59 countries.

Despite those impressive achievements, he still remains unknown to many, including some of those who travel the roadway that bears his name.

"I felt the man was never really celebrated for the many things that he did," said Bishop Ocie Booker, founder of the Bishop Louis Henry Ford Legacy Committee. "Certainly the expressway was a tribute to him, but we have not really set forth many of the things that he did to show that he deserved even more to be known."

The exhibit displays photographs that illustrate the deep mark Bishop Ford left on the city and beyond: preaching the sermon at Emmett Till's funeral, becoming one of the first black preachers broadcast on Chicago radio, promoting the early days of gospel music, restoring and maintaining the historic Clarke House, and advocating for jobs, education and housing for the city's less-fortunate.

Ford arrived in Chicago in 1933 and spent more than 60 years here as a minister, rising to the highest leadership position of the Church of God in Christ, the largest African-American Pentecostal denomination. He also became one of Chicago's most well-connected clergymen by the time of his death in 1995.

Ford's deep civic and political involvement was unusual for a Pentecostal minister in the '30s and '40s, said David Daniels, professor of church history at the McCormick Theological Seminary. But it set a template for clergymen on Chicago's South Side working with the city government, rather than protesting against it.

"[Ford] was a clergy person who was inside, yet one who continued to speak on issues," Daniels said.

Describing Ford as "a networker par excellence," Daniels said that the bishop cultivated partnerships and friendships with local political powers -- including Mayors Richard J. and Richard M. Daley and Mayor Harold Washington -- and national figures, such as former President Bill Clinton.

The exhibit contains a multitude of photographs illustrating those relationships, with pictures of Bishop Ford posing alongside everyone from Joe Louis to Nelson Mandela.

"There were no African-Americans of note that we weren't exposed to as children," said Ford's daughter Janet Hill, who is helping organizers assemble the exhibit.

Daniels said that Ford used his connections with the City Hall elite to represent the city's less-fortunate.

"By the '40s, [Ford] saw the role of clergy being involved in the political arena," Daniels said, "not as politicians, but as spokespeople for the underrepresented, the poor, and African-Americans, to make sure that African-Americans were heard."

"Many poor and African-American and disenfranchised individuals would go to Bishop Ford to get what they needed from the city, as opposed to going all the way downtown," said Rev. Astead Herndon, organizer of the exhibit. "Many people knew him as the person to get things done, and he definitely would leverage his relationships."

Ford maintained his tight association with the Daley family even as Richard J. Daley came under fire in the late '60s from black activists. "He would have thought it was better to work as an insider, trying to bring about change, than to stand on the outside trying to force change," Daniels said.

That loyalty endeared Bishop Ford to Richard M. Daley as well, who is serving as honorary chairman of the Ford Legacy Committee.

Booker -- who worked with Ford for more than 40 years and currently holds the position in the Chicago COGIC leadership that Ford once occupied -- said that Ford also used his connections to introduce poor youth to the better things in life, including his beloved sport of golf.

"Before Tiger Woods, this man was a golfer -- I don't know a pro that could be better than him," Booker said. "He could call his shot and do it."

Ford often took young men he saw as potential leaders to the golf course, teaching them the game while using the game to teach. "Golf requires the development of good judgment; you have to make decisions in a way that if you want to win the game, you always have to have your head on straight," Booker said.

Only a year after his death, Ford became the first African-American to have an Illinois expressway named for him when the stretch of I-94 known as the Calumet Expressway was rechristened the Bishop Ford Freeway by the state. But despite the name recognition, exhibit organizers worried that Chicagoans were increasingly unaware of his legacy.

"Here is a man that truly represented the black community," Booker said, adding that "going from a young man starting as a youth leader and ending up leading the whole church, the worldwide church, to me is really something."

The exhibit will be opened with a gala event at the DuSable Museum on Saturday night, with proceeds going toward the production of a documentary on Ford's life. The exhibit will run for three months at the museum, located on the east side of Washington Park in the Hyde Park neighborhood.

----------

rmitchum@tribune.com

Read religion news at chicagotribune.com/religion