Holts Drive
Image Credit:
Top Image: In All My Years: Portraits of Older Blacks in Champaign-Urbana" by Raymond Bial (Champaign County Historical Museum)
Part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Subdivision in Champaign, Holts Drive is named for Willie Holt (1900-1985), a businessman in Champaign-Urbana’s African American community who operated a sanitary hauling business for over 20 years. Born in Paris, TN, on December 25, 1900, his family were primarily farmers. He moved to Champaign in 1921 where he and his wife, Effie, raised their five children. For many years he worked for the Clifford-Jacob forging plant. In 1940, Mr. Holt went into business for himself, retiring in the mid-1960s. He was active in the community, serving as an ordained deacon at Salem Baptist Church and was a member and past treasurer of the University Elks Lodge 619.
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