Image Credit:
Bethel AME Church (Doris K. Wylie Hoskins Collection, Museum of the Grand Prairie, Mahomet, IL)

Celebrate the hidden and incredible stories

Right here in East Central Illinois

Champaign County African American Heritage Trail

Discover over 170 years of rich cultural history and building community. Through Reconstruction and the Great Migration, through the Depression and two world wars, through the Civil Rights era right up to the present day, learn the powerful stories of African Americans who directly shaped the place we call home.

The mission is to educate today’s residents and visitors about the rich cultural history of a people whose stories have been largely unrecognized. Our vision is to inspire conversation, expand understanding, and contribute to a better society.

Explore the Trail

Image credit: Homer Historical Society (Wiley Jones on Main Street Homer in 1912. Cobbler Scott Smith is on the right.)

Agriculture

Business

Community

Education

Military

Early Achievements in Homer & Southeastern Champaign County

Homer, Illinois, has a rich history as a village where many early African Americans in Champaign County could gather, work, recreate, and build successful lives for themselves and their families. Many prominent African American businesspeople, intellectuals, and community leaders passed through or came from Homer.

Image credit: Cattle Drive, Homer, IL, date unknown, Homer Historical Society.

Agriculture

Black Cowboys in Southeastern Champaign County

Before the famous Texas Cattle Drives, there were Black cowboys herding cattle in East Central Illinois. One of the largest cattle farms in the United States was located in southeast Champaign County: Ohioan Michael Sullivant's farm, Broadlands. Many African Americans filled the essential roles of cattle herding and farm maintenance on Sullivant's Broadlands Farm and other large cattle farms in southeastern Champaign and southwestern Vermilion Counties, as well as at Sullivant's holdings in Ford County. At their height, these farms sold cattle to the East, to the stockyard of Chicago, and to the Union Army during the Civil War. Additionally, African Americans were hired as cooks, standard farmhands and laborers, hostlers (caring and handling of horses and mules), and domestics. Farm and stock help were highly intermittent—with workers coming and going depending on the farms' needs—so the actual number of African American cowboys in Champaign County was unknown. However, the 1865 Illinois Census recorded nine African Americans working at Broadlands Farm: four women working as cooks and domestics, and five men working with the livestock and living in the large bunkhouse along with other “hands”.

1002 N. 5th Street, Champaign, IL

Image credit: Cecil Dewey Nelson in World War I Uniform, c. 1919, Courtesy of Estelle L. Merrifield Collection, Urbana, Illinois.

Military

Cecil Dewey Nelson, Sr.

Cecil D. Nelson was the most decorated World War I soldier in the county. A sergeant in both the Mexican Expedition of 1916 and World War I, he increased his age so he could enlist in the Illinois 8th Regiment, known as the “Old 8th,” in Danville, Illinois. With the U.S. involvement in World War I, his unit become part of the all-Black 370th Infantry where he met and became friends with William Frank Earnest, whom he saw die. On October 18, 1918, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre by French General Vincendon for bravery under fire, and several other decorations later for his service during World War I. The son of Joseph and Estella Nelson (née Anderson), he, like his mother, was born and raised in Champaign, Illinois, and was a member of Bethel AME. He returned home where he met and married William Franks’ niece, Carrie Mae Earnest, and became an active and respected member of both the Black and white communities. He lived at 1002 N. 5th Street in Champaign, and he is one of the founders of the William F. Earnest American Legion Post #559.

Did you know…

Image credit: News Gazette

Visual Arts

Cunningham Township Murals

The Cunningham Township building (205 W. Green St., Urbana) includes two murals by Langston Allston on either side. One side depicts people sharing a book, while the other side depicts people sharing a guitar. In 2022, Allston led the installation of both murals with support from about 20 community members.

Events

Image Credit:
Salem Baptist Church (Homer Historical Society)

Lift every voice and sing

Your story matters.

Submit local history, buildings, or events to include on the Trail.

We want to hear from you!