Springfield Race Riot of 1908, Sixteen people died. $150,000 in property damage. The riot was a catalyst of the formation of the NAACP. The population of Springfield, Illinois was 45,000 at that time.

Route History Museum located in Springfield, Illinois, Black History of Route 66 or Mother Road in the United States.

Ellis Haizlip 1929-1991 producer, promoter, and best known as host of Soul.

Charity Adams Early 1918 – 2002 was the first Black woman to be an officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, commanding officer of the first battalion of Black Women to service overseas during WWII and the highest-ranking woman in the army at the end of WWII. She served in the army from 1942-1946.

Robert Smalls 1839-1915 a politician, publisher, businessman, and maritime pilot. Born into slavery, he convinced President Abraham Lincoln to accept Black soldiers into the Union Army.

Enslaved Africans politically correct term coined for slaves who landed on the now U.S. shores in 1619.

Floyd Cooper 1956-2021 children’s book illustrator.

Recy Taylor 1919 – 2017 in 1944 was kidnapped and gang-raped by six white men in Alabama. Rosa Parks of the NAACP investigated, and no charges were brought against the men. In 2011 the Alabama Legislature apologized for the state’s failure to prosecute. A documentary film “The Rape of Recy Taylor” debuted in 2017.