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Black History

A Community in Conflict

8 items

1850
In the 1840s and 50s, more African Americans settled in McLean County. But they soon learned that their opportunities were limited.

Digital Exhibit

1870
Who had the power to vote? Many women in McLean County believed that they, like men, should be ...

Digital Exhibit

1871
In 1871, Martha and Henry Crow wanted their children to get as much education as possible.

Digital Exhibit

1898
Bloomington’s African American citizens did not always agree when it came to politics. But they did agree that they deserved more respect from white people.

Digital Exhibit

1919
During the late 1800s, Black people in McLean County were provided with equal access to public facilities and accommodations. But in the early 1900s, Jim Crow segregation dramatically increased in Central Illinois and Black people were increasingly treated as second-class citizens.

Digital Exhibit

1939
Black students could attend Illinois State Normal University as early as the 1870s. But if they could not find off-campus housing in Bloomington or Normal, that opportunity disappeared.

Digital Exhibit

1965
Low income residents faced challenges when it came to home ownership. Their treatment by government officials made it nearly impossible for them to improve their circumstances, and sometimes made their situations worse.

Digital Exhibit

1970
Despite new civil rights laws, discrimination still existed in Bloomington schools.

Digital Exhibit

Abraham Lincoln in McLean County

1 item

Expansion of Slavery
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 threatened to extend slavery into northern territories. This da...

Digital Exhibit

Articles

12 items

ward family portrait

Black farm family prominent in Bellflower Township
McLean County farmland has always had a relatively high rate of tenancy—from the earliest years...

Article

A yellowed image shows a large three-story school made of brick. it has multiple chimneys, and a fence around the perimeter of the grounds. Blurred human figures can be seen on the sidewalk, they are moving and come across as translucent in this image. A few branches of a tree can be see on the right, they are completely bare. A small amount of snow appears to be on the ground.

Bloomington schools integrated decade after Civil War
Although racially segregated schools are associated with the “Jim Crow” Deep South and the Civi...

Article

team photo

Buffaloes battled for respect on hardwood court
In late October 1921, the Bloomington Buffaloes, a “colored” basketball team, defeated a rival ...

Article

A man kneels, inserting an American flag next to a grave stone in a cemetery.

Central Illinois final resting place for once-enslaved persons
The stain of slavery pervades the American experience, dating well before the nation’s founding...

Article

Duke Ellington big draw in Twin Cities
Someone once said, presumably half in earnest and half in jest, that American contributions to ...

Article

Early African-American doctor faced segregated Twin Cities
African-American physician Eugene G. Covington came to Bloomington about 1900 to open a medical...

Article

Emancipation Day once Black community’s July 4th
In the years before the Civil War and for several decades afterward, Bloomington’s African-Amer...

Article

ISU held racially segregated spring dances in the 1930s and ’40s
The racial climate throughout the United States deteriorated steadily in the first quarter of t...

Article

Joe Johnson, self-appointed Courthouse ‘traffic director’
In the 1960s and into the early 1970s, visitors to the McLean County Courthouse would see two f...

Article

This carte de visite portrait dates to 1864.

Sojourner Truth spoke in Bloomington
One hundred and forty years ago this week, on Sept. 18, 1879, the incomparable Sojourner Truth ...

Article

13 children and young adults sit on a long bench at a table. The table has a white table cloth and place settings for each person. One man is at the head of the table, wearing a bow tie. A woman stands behind the table in a dress. They are all looking at the camera, many of the children are smiling. All of the people in the photograph are African American. The walls appear to be lightly-painted brick.

Washington Home couple worked ‘through the heart’
“Cooks and counselors, painters and referees, they are also mom and pop to up to twenty childre...

Article

‘Black Devils’ earned fame in WW I
During World War I, several dozen Bloomington-Normal residents fought in an African-American re...

Article

Biographies

35 items

Lucinda Barton

Barton, Lucinda
Lucinda Robinson Barton was born on January 18, 1838 in Washington Co., Missouri. When she was ...

Biography

Blue, Richard
Richard Blue (1842-1921) was born in Ohio and came to Bloomington at age 9 with Judge Rayburn a...

Biography

Henry Brown

Brown, Henry L.
Henry Brown was never afraid to learn new skills to overcome the challenges life threw at him. ...

Biography

Edward Bynum

Bynum, Edward
True and literal meaning is leant to the phrase “brothers in arms” by and his younger brother L...

Biography

Lincoln Bynum in 1969

Bynum, Lincoln
True and literal meaning is leant to the phrase “brothers in arms” by Lincoln Bynum and his old...

Biography

Calcote, Matilda
Matilda Bell Heaston entered the world on November 30, 1910. Born to Jake and Doshie (Robinson)...

Biography

Calimese, Louise
Napoleon J. Calimese (pronounced Calimeez) was born February 18, 1890 in Irvine, Kentucky. He w...

Biography

Calimese, Napoleon
Napoleon J. Calimese (pronounced Calimeez) was born February 18, 1890 in Irvine, Kentucky. He w...

Biography

Portrait of a young Black woman with her hair parted down the middle and pulled back. She is wearing a black and white dress and is looking at the camera with a closed-mouth smile.

Clark, Lue Anna Sanders
Lue Anna Brown was born on January 26, 1892 in a rural area in Bandana, Kentucky, to William an...

Biography

Claxton, Belle Blue
Belle Blue Claxton was born in Bloomington, IL on April 30, 1872.  She was a daughter of Richar...

Biography

Covington, Dr. Eugene
Dr. E. G. Covington was the first established and successful African American medical doctor in...

Biography

Alverta Duff

Duff, Alverta
 Alverta Duff was the oldest child of Peter Charles and Fannie E. (Walker) Duff. She was born o...

Biography

Julia Duff

Duff, Julia
Julia Edith Duff was born on June 5, 1895 in Normal, Illinois, the daughter of Peter Charles an...

Biography

Peter Duff

Duff, Peter
Peter Duff moved to Normal, IL after fleeing Kentucky following the end of the American Civil W...

Biography

Ebo, Sister Mary Antona
Sister Mary Antona Ebo was a well-behaved woman who DID make history as one of the Sisters of S...

Biography

Headstones in a wooded cemetery

Esque, Eliza (Davis)
Eliza Davis Esque was born around 1845 in St. Charles County, Missouri.  Little is known about ...

Biography

Carter Harris

Harris, Carter
Carter Harris was born April 15, 1856 on a small plantation in Red Bank, Mississippi. A so...

Biography

Absalom Hawkins

Hawkins, Absalom
Absalom Hawkins, known as Ab by nearly all, was born on December 25, 1855. According to his obi...

Biography

Julia Hawkins headstone

Hawkins, Julia Bee
Julia Bee was born in Illinois on March 29, 1863. It is not known who her parents were but in t...

Biography

Huggins, Sophia
Sophia Huggins (1831-1903) or “Aunt Sophia” as she was known by her clientele, was a claimed cl...

Biography

Jones, Annie Ethel
Annie Ethel Jones (1899 – 1991) was a Black woman born and reared on a Mississippi farm, which ...

Biography

Kennedy, Beulah Jones Thornton
According to Beulah Jones Thornton Kennedy, “we wanted first-class citizenship. We had to pay f...

Biography

Kennedy, Merlin Robert
The local story of the American Civil Rights Movement, especially in McLean County, cannot be t...

Biography

Simon Malone headstone

Malone, Simon Booth
Simon Booth Malone was born into slavery on December 18, 1842 in Tippah County, Mississippi.  S...

Biography

McCoslin, William
William McCoslin (1830-1878) was born in Vandalia, Illinois on July 27, 1830. While the names o...

Biography

Morris, Charles
Dr. Charles Morris was a Civil Rights pioneer in McLean County. After his arrival in Bloomingto...

Biography

Murray, Ethel
Much of what we know today about Murray comes from oral history which can sometimes contradict ...

Biography

Sanders, Isaac
Isaac Joshua Beasley Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on January 17, 1878. He was the ...

Biography

Willis Stearles

Stearles, Willis
Much of what we know today about Willis Stearles comes from oral history, members of the commun...

Biography

Grace Stewart

Stewart, Grace Huddleston
Grace Huddleston Stewart became known throughout Bloomington after she brought a fair housing c...

Biography

Ella Stokes

Stokes, Ella Lee
Ella Lee Luallen is one of many important voices in the Black history of McLean County. She was...

Biography

George Washington Thomas

Thomas, George Washington
George Washington Thomas was born in Wisemantown, Kentucky, around 1860 or 1861. At that time K...

Biography

A black and white portrait of Jack Waddell, an African-American man. he is wearing a denim jacket, a chevron striped shirt, and jeans. He has his hands in his front pockets, and is smiling while looking just below the camera.

Waddell, John (Jack) Austin
The text below was summarized by JoAnna Mink from “Voice of Experience” by Rachel Hatch, Illino...

Biography

Private Gus Williams funeral

Williams, Private Gus
Augustus “Gus” Williams was born in Jacksonville, Illinois on September 22, 1892. He was the so...

Biography

Julius Witherspoon

Witherspoon, Julius
Julius Witherspoon (1859-1906) relocated to Bloomington from Arkansas when he was 24. He worked...

Biography

Blog

19 items

Ebony Affair: The Fight to Keep Black Voices on the Air

Blog Post

George Stewart World War I veteran
This photograph, undated, shows George Stewart, a local (and well-decorated) World War I vetera...

Blog Post

Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs Annual Convention, Bloomington 1918
The Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs held its nineteenth convention in Bloomington ...

Blog Post

McHistory: Bloomington-Normal Under Jim Crow Law
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: George Hoagland’s ‘Oil of Gladness’
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: Housekeeper for the affluent and the tawdry
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: Richard Blue was the first Black person to run for Bloomington council
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: Segregation in Bloomington-Normal
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

Memorial Day 1960 African-American Legionnaires
The Redd-William American Legion Post color guard heads north on East Street in downtown Bloomi...

Blog Post

Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church Bloomington, June 9, 1940
Founded in October 1865 as South Hill Baptist Church, Mt Pisgah Baptist Church has played an im...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 116: We Shall Overcome, October 1965
On Sunday, October 24, 1965, demonstrators from Illinois State University marched along Main St...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 26: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!
Olympic Speedster Jesse Owens Visits Bloomington Famed Olympian Jesse Owens visited Bloomington...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 53: Bloomington-Normal Branch of the NAACP, 1944
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation's forem...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 54: Ike Sander’s “Short Order House,” ca. 1903-1911
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1878, Isaac Joshua Beasley Sanders came to Bloomington someti...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 66: African-American Voters Organize, February 1972
On February 15, 1972, the Minority Voters Coalition of Bloomington-Normal elected officers duri...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 8: Ike Sanders "Up, Up and Away"
This week's photo comes from the Museum's Bloomington-Normal Black History Project Co...

Blog Post

Redd-Williams Legion Post January 1942
For much of the 20th century the Twin Cities had segregated American Legion posts. Seen here ar...

Blog Post

Redd-Williams Legion Post McBarnes Building, January 1942
Seen here are Redd-Williams American Legion Post #163 members at the McBarnes Memorial Building...

Blog Post

Rockets, mid-1940s Twin-City Recreation Center
The Rockets were an informal team connected to the Twin-City Recreation Center, 318 S. Main St....

Blog Post

Finding Aids

14 items

Barton House Archaeology and Family History
Milton Barton worked for Jesse Fell (founder and developer of Normal) and reportedly planted ma...

Finding Aid

Bloomington-Normal Black History Project
Finding aid for the 6-box archival collection ...

Finding Aid

Booker T. Washington Home
The Booker T. Washington Home was founded in 1918 by Mr. and Mrs. Alex Barker.  They housed six...

Finding Aid

Duff Family
The collection deals almost exclusively with the family of Peter C. and Fannie Duff (1865-?), w...

Finding Aid

Kennedy, Merlin
The collection includes the personal papers of Mr. Kennedy, and his wife Beulah (1923-2002).  T...

Finding Aid

Major Collection of Letters from Liberia
The Major Collection of Letters from Liberia consists of twelve letters written by formerly ens...

Finding Aid

Martin Luther King Jr Awards Program — Human Relation Commissions
The Martin Luther King Jr Awards program is an annual event sponsored by the Bloomington Human ...

Finding Aid

Pratt, Awadagin
Awadagin Pratt was born in Pittsburgh in 1966.  He began studying piano at the age of six.  Whe...

Finding Aid

Suggs, Frank
A professor of music at Illinois State University starting in 1969, Frank Suggs promoted Africa...

Finding Aid

The Voice of the Black Community (Newspaper)

Finding Aid

Underground Railroad
In the decades before the Civil War an untold number of fugitive slaves journeyed northward to ...

Finding Aid

Waddell, Jack
Collection contains newspaper clippings, performance programs, photos, and ephemera tracing Jac...

Finding Aid

Wayman AME Church Archaeology
In the summer of 1992, an archeological excavation was conducted at the Wayman A.M.E. (African ...

Finding Aid

Whittaker Family
Reginald Whittaker, born April 23, 1925, lived all his life in Normal. His parents were Walter ...

Finding Aid

Making a Home

2 items

Duff Family
After the Civil War many African Americans came north searching for jobs, less discrimination, ...

Digital Exhibit

William and Henry Wells
Brothers William and Henry Wells had both been born into slavery. They were free men when they ...

Digital Exhibit

Oral Histories

15 items

Caribel Washington
Caribel Washington lived most of her life in Bloomington.  She graduated from Bloomington High ...

Oral History

Claude Hursey
Claude Hursey was born in Mississippi, the son of a Greek father and an African-American mother...

Oral History

Ethel Murray
Ethel Murray was born in Lincoln. She remembers a childhood relatively free from racial prejudi...

Oral History

Howard and Elaine Bell
Early Bloomington family, WWII veteran, Depression era history, Elaine was active in community ...

Oral History

Josephine Samuels & Reginald Whittaker
Normal, IL family, business, work at Woolworth's, GTE, Baha'i...

Oral History

Kathyrn Dean
State Farm employee, civic & social clubs, grandfather was Civil War veteran....

Oral History

Lucinda Posey
Pre-Civil war Bloomington family, Dir. of Medical Records (Brokaw Hospital), community & ci...

Oral History

Lue Anna Clark
Father was enslaved, WWI era restaurant business, boarding of ISNU students...

Oral History

Merlin and Beulah Kennedy
Active in civil rights, NAACP, Youth Council, employment & housing issues....

Oral History

Oscar and Ruth Waddell
WWII veteran, skilled employment at GE, breaking employment barriers, home ownership, Willis St...

Oral History

Richard and Rose Bell
Business owner and farmer, Rose Anna from early McLean County family, Illinois Soldiers & ...

Oral History

Robert Gaston
Barber, WWII veteran, Chamber of Commerce Board member....

Oral History

Robert and Lillian Augusta Boykin
Social clubs, Union Baptist Church, domestic, yard & railroad work, farm life & sharecr...

Oral History

Roy and Delores Shavers
Melody Gospel Choir, African-American business in Bloomington & Clinton, St. Mary's Ca...

Oral History

Wilbur Barton
Early Normal family, ISNU grad & athlete, WWII veteran, teacher/principal....

Oral History

Publications

8 items

History Of African Americans In McLean County
This book was originally written for students. Primarily, it was intended to provide informatio...

Publication

History of the Illinois Association of Club Women and Girls, Inc. 1901-1975
In presenting to the Illinois Association of Club Women and Girls, Inc. this history, we must f...

Publication

McLean County Blacks in the Civil War
Examines the extent of involvement of Black people from McLean County, Illinois in the Civil Wa...

Publication

Pictorial Souvenir Central Illinois 1912
From the foreword: "The purpose of this book is to bring before the people, in a brief way...

Publication

Presence, Pride, and Passion: A History of African Americans in McLean County
Despite Illinois laws that were not friendly to Blacks, African Americans chose to make McLean ...

Publication

The William Carey Barton Family: A Study in Historical Archaeology
Between June 14 and June 30, 1994 archaeological investigations were carried out at the old Wil...

Publication

Wayman AME Church A 175 Year Jubilant Journey Book
We are on a “Jubilant Journey” that has covered 175 years of ministering in McLean County. We a...

Publication

Wayman AME Church: One Hundred Fifty Years Of History
History of Wayman AME Church, including past clergy and an archaeological dig of the Center St....

Publication

Research

2 items

Post Amerikan
Held by the MCMH and digitized by Eastern Illinois University. The Post Amerikan began publicat...

Article

Researching African American History in McLean County
List of resources for researching African American History in McLean County....

Article

Speakers Bureau

1 item

Freedom, Land, and Community

Speakers Bureau

Videos

7 items

A Black Woman’s Journey from Cotton Picking to College Professor

Video

BNBHP Presents: A Reunion: the Booker T. Washington Home

Video

City of Bloomington Honorary Street Sign Celebration

Video

Lunch & Learn: Oral Histories and the Bloomington-Normal Black History Project with Andrew Thomas

Video

Social Justice History Walking Tour

Video

Untold African American Stories: Springfield's Lincoln Colored Home

Video

We all Played Together: A Historical Account of African- American Musicians

Video

Websites

1 item

Black History Resource List
A Google Doc containing links to various local Black history resources such as articles, podcas...

Website

Working for a Living

5 items

Building for a Growing Population
A growing community in need of housing meant a greater need for workers in the construction tra...

Digital Exhibit

Changing Healthcare Attitudes
The medical profession began to accept a limited number of women and African American professio...

Digital Exhibit

Fair Labor Practices Improve
With access to both highway and rail transportation, national companies were attracted to McLea...

Digital Exhibit

Railroad Workers Were Still in Demand
Despite the rising popularity of auto travel, rail transportation remained prominent. Laborers ...

Digital Exhibit

Service Providers
Before the 1950s working as a domestic servant was one of the few jobs available to African Ame...

Digital Exhibit