The Ridge Historical Society
Black History Month Program: “Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Chicago and Northeastern Illinois”
Presenters: Larry McClellan, PH.D., and Tom Shepherd
Details: Friday, February 17, 2023, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., at RHS, 10621 S. Seeley Avenue, Chicago. Program followed by refreshments. Cost: $10 for RHS members and $15 for non-members.
This program will explore the movement of fugitive slaves known as “freedom seekers” and the network of support that developed as the Underground Railroad. In the decades before the the Civil War, several thousand freedom seekers travelled through northeastern Illinois. Their stories, and the range of encounters with white and Black abolitionists who provided them with assistance, will be shared in this program.
Professor Larry McClellan has written extensively on the Underground Railroad in Illinois and northwest Indiana. He was the principal author of applications that added sites in Crete, Lockport and on the Little Calumet River to the National Park Service registry of significant Underground Railroad sites in America. He is the President of the Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project.
He is the author of three books: Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois, which will be released this summer; The Underground Railroad South of Chicago; and To the River: The Remarkable Journey of Caroline Quarlls, a Freedom Seeker on the Underground Railroad.
Tom Shepherd is the Secretary and Project Director for the Little Calumet River Underground Railroad Project. He is a well-known and respected preservation, environmental, and social activist in the south Chicagoland region, hailing from the Pullman community. He was President of the Southeast Environmental Task Force for fifteen years and currently works for the Hegewisch Business Association as special assistant to the Executive Director.
RHS will also premier its new permanent exhibit on the Underground Railroad on the Ridge at this event. There were several locations in Beverly associated with UGRR activity in the days leading up to the U.S. Civil War.
This will be a sold-out event, as the occupancy at RHS is very limited. Reservations will be honored for this event as first come, first served. Please purchase a ticket (guaranteed) or RSVP (no “maybes”) as soon as possible. Ticket sales and RSVPs will end on Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. or as soon as the event is sold out. Walk-ins will likely not be accommodated for this event.
For tickets: https://bit.ly/rhs-UGRR