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

Explore the Trail

Discover over 170 years of African American history in Champaign County. From historic churches to self-made individuals, you’ll discover powerful stories of African Americans and the rich history of building community in Champaign County.

Note: Trail stops with a physical location or marker will include this icon next to their title below. The remaining share detailed history relevant to people, places, and significant events that shaped Champaign County but do not have a physical location to visit or marker to read. At this time, we encourage those who would like to explore the Trail in-person to use the map below to schedule self-guided walking or driving tours to locations of interest.

The historical references currently provided are a small sampling of what will be included on the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail. The organizing committee is currently curating additional significant historical events, places, and people that will be featured as the Trail continues to be developed.

Wiley & Frances Jones

Wiley & Frances Jones

Home of Jacob Earnest

Home of Jacob Earnest

Homer High School

Homer High School

Homer Park

Homer Park

The Smith Family of Broadlands

The Smith Family of Broadlands

The Gaines Family of Ayers Township

The Gaines Family of Ayers Township

Frederick Douglass’ Visit to Champaign

Frederick Douglass’ Visit to Champaign

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Americans and the Illinois Central Railroad

African Americans and the Illinois Central Railroad

Salem Baptist Church

Salem Baptist Church

St. Luke Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church

St. Luke Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church

Albert R. Lee

Albert R. Lee

William F. Earnest American Legion Post 559

William F. Earnest American Legion Post 559

North First Street Corridor, Champaign

North First Street Corridor, Champaign

Douglass Park and Douglass Center

Douglass Park and Douglass Center

Student Demonstrations for Equal Rights

Student Demonstrations for Equal Rights

Champaign Public Library Douglass Branch

Champaign Public Library Douglass Branch

Lawhead School

Lawhead School

Carver Park

Carver Park

Dr. Ellis Subdivision

Dr. Ellis Subdivision

Dr. Martin Luther King Subdivision

Dr. Martin Luther King Subdivision

The Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center

The Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center

The Presence of the "Divine 9" at the University of Illinois

The Presence of the

William Frank Earnest

William Frank Earnest

Former Chanute Air Force Base and the 99th Pursuit Squadron

Former Chanute Air Force Base and the 99th Pursuit Squadron

Special Educational Opportunities Program (also known as Project 500)

Special Educational Opportunities Program (also known as Project 500)

Walter T. Bailey and the Colonel Wolfe School

Walter T. Bailey and the Colonel Wolfe School

The Ellis Drive Six and School Integration

The Ellis Drive Six and School Integration

Early Achievements in Homer & Southeastern Champaign County

Early Achievements in Homer & Southeastern Champaign County

Black Cowboys in Southeastern Champaign County

Black Cowboys in Southeastern Champaign County

Homer G.A.R. Cemetery

Homer G.A.R. Cemetery

Sergeant Allen A. Rivers, Sr.

Sergeant Allen A. Rivers, Sr.

Edward A. Green

Edward A. Green

African American Civil War Burials and Mt. Hope Cemetery

African American Civil War Burials and Mt. Hope Cemetery

Emancipation Day Celebrations

Emancipation Day Celebrations

University of Illinois Alumni

University of Illinois Alumni

African Americans in the Civil War

African Americans in the Civil War

Cecil Dewey Nelson, Sr.

Cecil Dewey Nelson, Sr.

Booker T. Washington School

Booker T. Washington School
Between N. Fourth Street and the Canadian National Railroad Tracks

Image credit: Experience Champaign-Urbana

Dr. Martin Luther King Subdivision

The Dr. Martin Luther King Subdivision, located between North Fourth Street and the Canadian National railroad tracks in Champaign, Illinois, was a part of urban renewal that took place in the late 1960s, eventually replacing the old Oak-Ash neighborhood. It began in the 1980s and was the only urban renewal project that was not replaced with public or subsidized housing. The names of the streets in the subdivision were chosen to recognize African Americans who were historically significant for the community and submitted to the city council by J. W. Pirtle.

1212 W. Nevada St, Urbana, IL

Image credit: University of Illinois Archives

The Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center

In the fall of 1969, the University of Illinois’ Afro-American Cultural Program opened on campus to provide a safe space for Black students to gather and grow, to help Black students feel proud and welcome, and to educate the campus community about the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans. The Program was created in response to the Project 500 protest in September 1968, in which Black students demonstrated against inequitable treatment by the University. In 2004, the University rededicated the space as the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, named after a former director of the center.

Image credit: Used with permission from the Personal Collection of Hester Nelson Suggs

The Presence of the "Divine 9" at the University of Illinois

The first Black Greek letter organizations began in the early 1900s when African American students were excluded from dormitories (as was the case at the University of Illinois), study groups and social organizations at predominantly white institutions. Often ostracized, Black students began to organize themselves for mutual academic and social support. As these organizations evolved, they developed the values of scholarship, friendship, service, leadership, and philanthropy. Today, all nine historically Black sororities and fraternities have chapters, commonly known as the “Divine 9,” on the University of Illinois’ campus. Two of the earliest Black Greek organizations, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, were the first such organizations on the University’s campus to provide housing for their chapter members. The first residence for Alpha Kappa Alpha (Gamma House) was located at 1201 W. Stoughton in Urbana and the first home for Kappa Alpha Psi was at 707 S. Third Street, in Champaign.

The young women pictured on the steps in 1915 are members of the Gamma Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority which was established at the University in 1914.

Memorial Stadium (1402 S. 1st St, Champaign, IL)

Image credit: University of Illinois Archives

William Frank Earnest

The historic colonnades that grace the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium, dedicated in 1924, bear the names of Illinois students who died in World War I. One of those students was William Frank Earnest, the first African American from Champaign County to die in the war.

Chanute Field

Image credit: Enlisted men and aviation cadets of the 99th Pursuit Squadron posed in front of Building T-39 (mess hall) at Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois. Some of the men are holding folders and notebooks from their classes. (Courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.)

Former Chanute Air Force Base and the 99th Pursuit Squadron

On March 22, 1941, the first all-Black fighter squadron, known as the 99th Pursuit Squadron, was activated at Chanute Field. “Pursuit” was the pre-World War II term for “fighter.” At the time, the U.S. armed forces maintained segregated units. Over 250 enlisted men were trained at Chanute Field in aircraft ground support—airplane mechanics, supply clerks, weather forecasters and armorers. When the men of the 99th left Chanute to go to Tuskegee in November, they left behind the highest collective Grade Point Average ever earned at the base, before or since their stay. These men would become the core of the Black squadrons forming at Tuskegee and Maxwell Fields in Alabama where Black flyers were being trained—later known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

Image credit: Billy Morrow Jackson mural "Project 500," oil, 2003. (University of Illinois Student Life and Culture Archives.)

Special Educational Opportunities Program (also known as Project 500)

The Special Educational Opportunities Program, commonly referred to as Project 500, was designed by the University of Illinois in 1968 to ensure equality of educational access and opportunities for all students, including those from underrepresented or disadvantaged communities. In 1967, fewer than 400 of the university’s approximately 30,400 students were Black. The program was the University’s response to demands from students and community residents, led by the Black Students Association and fueled by the community’s response to the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to recruit and enroll more Black students. The first Project 500 cohort in 1968 had 565 students, most of whom were Black, though some Hispanic and Native American students also enrolled in the program.

403 E. Healey St., Champaign, IL

Image credit: University of Illinois Archives

Walter T. Bailey and the Colonel Wolfe School

Walter Thomas Bailey was the first African American to graduate with a degree in architectural engineering from the University of Illinois in 1904, and he was the first licensed African American architect in Illinois. He contributed to the Colonel Wolfe School in Champaign as a young man, and later enjoyed a successful and influential career leading architectural projects throughout the United States. Bailey assisted with the design of the Colonel Wolfe School at 403 E. Healey in Champaign. The Colonel Wolfe School was constructed in 1905 as a public elementary school. Named after Colonel John S. Wolfe, captain of the 20th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, the building was designed by the architectural firm Spencer & Temple from Champaign.

1108 Fairview Ave, Urbana, IL

Image credit: Above: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School │ In-Text Images (Top Left to Bottom Right): Carlos Donaldson, from the Illinois News Bureau and Bill Wiegand; Willeta Donaldson, from the News Gazette obituary for Willeta Donaldson; Paul Hursey, from "A life remembered: Urbana's first Black elected official, a local civil-rights icon," News Gazette (March 18, 2007); Shirley Hursey, courtesy of the Hursey Family; Jo Ann Jackson, courtesy of the Jackson Family; Evelyn Underwood, from "Urbana desegregation pioneers to receive accolades today," News Gazette (January 13, 2017)..

The Ellis Drive Six and School Integration

In 1965, two neighbors and University of Illinois mailmen, Carlos Donaldson and Paul Hursey, learned of a dissertation that identified achievement gaps between African American students who attended James Wellen Hays Elementary School and the other schools in Urbana School District 116. Realizing that their children were not receiving an equal education, Donaldson and Hursey, along with Willeta Donaldson, Shirley Hursey, Jo Ann Jackson, and Rev. Dr. Evelyn Underwood, formed the Hays School Neighborhood Association. They lived in the Dr. Ellis Subdivision—the first subdivision of single-family homes in Urbana developed for African Americans—and met, researched, and strategized about meeting with the Urbana School Board to address educational disparities and advocate for school integration in 1966. These neighbors became known as the Ellis Drive Six.

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

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.

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”.

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