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Black History

A Community in Conflict

8 items

1850

1870

1871

1898

1919

1939

1965

1970

Abraham Lincoln in McLean County

1 item

Expansion of Slavery

Articles

12 items

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Central Illinois final resting place for once-enslaved persons
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ISU held racially segregated spring dances in the 1930s and ’40s
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Washington Home couple worked ‘through the heart’
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Joe Johnson, self-appointed Courthouse ‘traffic director’
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Emancipation Day once Black community’s July 4th
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‘Black Devils’ earned fame in WW I
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Bloomington schools integrated decade after Civil War
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Sojourner Truth spoke in Bloomington
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Black farm family prominent in Bellflower Township
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Buffaloes battled for respect on hardwood court
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Early African-American doctor faced segregated Twin Cities
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Duke Ellington big draw in Twin Cities

Biographies

29 items

="Henry

Brown, Henry L.
="Edward

Bynum, Edward
="Lincoln

Bynum, Lincoln
="Peter

Duff, Peter
="George

Thomas, George Washington
="Carter

Harris, Carter
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Covington, Dr. Eugene
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Jones, Annie Ethel
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Calcote, Matilda
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Claxton, Belle Blue
="Lucinda

Barton, Lucinda
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Murray, Ethel
="Headstones

Esque, Eliza (Davis)
="Julia

Hawkins, Julia Bee
="Absalom

Hawkins, Absalom
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Sanders, Isaac
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Williams, Private Gus
="Simon

Malone, Simon Booth
="Willis

Stearles, Willis
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Blue, Richard
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Calimese, Louise
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Calimese, Napoleon
="Portrait

Clark, Lue Anna Sanders
="Alverta

Duff, Alverta
="Julia

Duff, Julia
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Huggins, Sophia
="Grace

Stewart, Grace Huddleston
="Ella

Stokes, Ella Lee
="Julius

Witherspoon, Julius

Blog

14 items

Photo of the Week, 8: Ike Sanders "Up, Up and Away"

Photo of the Week, 26: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

Photo of the Week, 53: Bloomington-Normal Branch of the NAACP, 1944

Photo of the Week, 54: Ike Sander’s “Short Order House,” ca. 1903-1911

Redd-Williams Legion Post McBarnes Building, January 1942

Redd-Williams Legion Post January 1942

Rockets, mid-1940s Twin-City Recreation Center

George Stewart World War I veteran

Memorial Day 1960 African-American Legionnaires

Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church Bloomington, June 9, 1940

Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs Annual Convention, Bloomington 1918

McHistory: Housekeeper for the affluent and the tawdry

McHistory: Bloomington-Normal Under Jim Crow Law

Photo of the Week, 66: African-American Voters Organize, February 1972

Finding Aids

13 items

Booker T. Washington Home

Kennedy, Merlin

Major Collection of Letters from Liberia

Suggs, Frank

Underground Railroad

Whittaker Family

Waddell, Jack

Pratt, Awadagin

Duff Family

Barton House Archaeology and Family History

Wayman AME Church Archaeology

Martin Luther King Jr Awards Program — Human Relation Commissions

Bloomington-Normal Black History Project

Making a Home

2 items

William and Henry Wells

Duff Family

Oral Histories

15 items

Richard and Rose Bell

Ethel Murray

Caribel Washington

Howard and Elaine Bell

Robert and Lillian Augusta Boykin

Robert Gaston

Claude Hursey

Merlin and Beulah Kennedy

Lucinda Posey

Oscar and Ruth Waddell

Lue Anna Clark

Roy and Delores Shavers

Josephine Samuels & Reginald Whittaker

Wilbur Barton

Kathyrn Dean

Publications

8 items

History Of African Americans In McLean County

History of the Illinois Association of Club Women and Girls, Inc. 1901-1975

McLean County Blacks in the Civil War

Pictorial Souvenir Central Illinois 1912

Presence, Pride, and Passion: A History of African Americans in McLean County

The William Carey Barton Family: A Study in Historical Archaeology

Wayman AME Church A 175 Year Jubilant Journey Book

Wayman AME Church: One Hundred Fifty Years Of History

Research

1 item

Researching African American History in McLean County

Speakers Bureau

1 item

Freedom, Land, and Community

Videos

1 item

Social Justice History Walking Tour

Websites

1 item

Black History Resource List

Working for a Living

5 items

Building for a Growing Population

Changing Healthcare Attitudes

Railroad Workers Were Still in Demand

Service Providers

Fair Labor Practices Improve