In this episode of Sound of the State, State Senator Dave Koehler discusses the Freedom Trails Commission — a statewide effort to map and connect Underground Railroad sites throughout Illinois. Building on the work of the Underground Railroad Task Force, the commission will help communities share their unique histories and preserve the legacy of freedom seekers. From local efforts in Peoria to broader stories across the state, hear how Illinois aims to honor this critical chapter of American history while remaining a beacon of hope today.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to this episode of the Sound of the State
podcast from the Illinois Senate Done Credit Caucus in Springfield.
I'm Coolbyhoff, joined on Zoom today by State Senator Dave
Taylor of Peoria. Senator Taylor, welcome back to the podcast.
Our conversation today builds on a subject that we talked
about previously, the Underground Railroad Task Force, which was created
through legislation that you carried in the Senate, and a
(00:21):
follow up piece of legislation to that effort is the
Freedom Trails Commission. That's our subject today, Senate to Bill
sixteen oh seven. Tell me a little bit about the
Freedom Trails Commission and what it looks to do.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, Thank you, Koby. What this does is it tries
to link together all the underground railroad sites and historical
places that are really scattered throughout Illinois, and we want
to create a statewide map or database so that people
who are interested in uncovering more about this history and
about the stories of the freedom seekers that aimed Illinois
to seek their freedom from slavery, and trying to link
up all these communities that have all done a lot
(00:55):
of work and of their own interesting local stories to
tell to link it into a statewide database, people have
a better understanding of the totality of what this history
is about.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Of course, Senator, one important aspect of any commission is
who's involved in the process, not only who is on
the commission itself, but who's involved in selecting those individuals.
Who's going to make up this specific commission, and what
are we going to task it with doing.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The commission's going to include eleven members, ten members and
a chairperson pointed by the governor. It includes public officials, historians, educators,
community leaders, anybody with a deep knowledge of African American
history or underground railroad history. These will be people that'll
be appointed by the governor, but I'm sure beyond that
there'll be all kinds of committees and other phinoff groups
that people can get involved at really whatever level they
(01:39):
want to. This is I think an important step for Illinois.
There is a National Underground Railroad Museum which is in Cincinnati,
but Illinois's history is so rich and untapped at this
point that I think it's going to be exciting for
people throughout the state.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Senator as in Illinois, and I think it's important that
we recognize our history and how we got to where
we are today and really recognize that our state was
more than just a stop on the underground railroad. It
was beacon of hope for those fleeing slaveries. So what
is the Freedom Trails Commission going to be doing to
identify areas across the state linked to the underground Railroad
(02:12):
and what resources are we using to find those areas well?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The history out there exists, so there's a lot of
community groups that are working already to uncover some of
the history of their particular area. What we want to
do is try to bring these together and try to
give a database or a focal point so that people
can explore whatever they want to explore in whatever region
they want to And really it goes from the top
of Illinois to the bottom. Every place in Illinois has
some kind of history regarding the freedom seekers in the
(02:37):
underground Railroad one example, and I want to uplift the
memory of Art Wilson. Art was a doorman with the
Illinois Senate. He served in that capacity for yew years.
When we first brought this buill to the Senate, Art
grammy me one day and he said, Senator, you no
I'm very interested in this and I do work in
my area in Jacksonville, and so Art became a very
invaluable part of our Underground Railroad Task Force. Art passed
(02:59):
away just this last summer, and we're certainly going to
miss him. He represents the people who really want to
keep this story alive and want to explore what it
meant to their family or to their region. So I
just want to remember our Wilson as one of the
heroes of this ongoing story of Illinois and the underground
Railroad and the freedom seekers.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
State Senator Dave Kaylor with me on the podcast today. Senator,
let's tie in a little bit of not only what
we're looking to do here with the Freedom Frails Commission,
but the Underground Railroad Task Force. We did, of course,
do a previous conversation on that subject part of the
Sound of the State podcast series. Tell me a little
bit about what the Underground Railroad Task Force did and
some of the things that we've discovered through that process
so far.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
The Underground Railroad Task Force started out last year. We
passed the bill about a year and a half ago,
and then we actually set up the timeline for the
task force to meet, and so we've had meetings every month.
We had committees that were broken down into looking at
educational looking at history sites, looking at different aspects of
how we could really promote and uncover more of this history.
That was brought together and put into a report that
(03:57):
was issued both the governor and too the legislature. Here's
all the things that we've gone through, and here's our recommendation.
The recommendation was to create an ongoing commission to keep
this thing as a permanent kind of an activity and
looking at this story. Yeah, it was a real success
and a real victory or members of the task force.
And it wasn't just a task us members themselves. We
had a little expanded group that also involved others who
(04:18):
were involved in some of these committees. People are pretty
excited about this because this is the next step of
saying to Glennollyan really to the world that this history
is important and we're going to treat it as such,
and where I really enhance it and make it accessible
to anybody who wants it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Let's get a little deeper into some of the history
of Illinois and the underground railroad. Of course, Illinois being
a northern state in the Civil War and throughout that
area of American history. I think there's a lot of
people that don't maybe understand or maybe just outright don't
know that the state did in fact have a role
in the underground Railroad more than just maybe the obvious
parts of southern Illinois along the Ohio River. I know
(04:51):
you love to talk about Peoria and its history any
chance that you get, Senator, Peoria itself has a bit
of an interesting history with the underground Railroad. Talk to
me a little bit about to that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
There are sites and early give credit to John Ackerman,
the county for Taswell County. John came to me with
the idea about trying to do something to help promote
this history because he was working with a group in
Haswell County identifying grave markers of families that were the
host families or the underground railroad sites. And myself and
some of the members of the NAACP, we went over
one afternoon and are participated in one of these ceremonies
(05:23):
to the Aavy recognition at a grave marker to one
of these families. And it was out of the discussion
that ahead of John, we said, well, what else could
we do. I said, well, what about trying to somehow
link together all the stories that exist not only in
Taswell County, but other counties throughout the state and see
if we can't do something that is really more on
a purna basis, on a statewide basis. And that's what
came out of this, So from John and from the
(05:45):
folks in Taswell County who trying to recognize some of
the historical farms that were really used as underground railroad sites,
to now what the work of the commission and the
report and the bill that now establishes a full time commission.
That's all been within the last two to three years.
And that's kind of a remarkable history. But every area,
I would say in Illinois has this kind of history.
The Commission wants to get going. It's going to have
(06:06):
its own life. It's going to be able to figure
out all kinds of things and ways to promote this history.
This is exciting history, not likee for ourselves as people
who grew up and live and work in Illinois, but
really for people to come and visit the area. My
wife and I often will kind of gravitate towards historical
sites when we're traveling, because we want to know the
history of the area we've come across. As an example,
(06:26):
in Ohio going to the first Presidential library that ever constructed,
just the history of that area, all of a sudden
was something that we were just oblivious about, and now
it becomes somewhat meaningful. I think people will find that
same kind of interest in looking at Illinois and looking
at our history of how folks trying to escape slavery
came into Illinois because it was a beacon of hope
for them. Illinois is still a beacon of hope. Whether
(06:47):
you're a gay or transgender, or a woman seeking reproductive health,
Illinois is still a beacon of hope, and we have
to remember that. And so this is part of our history,
but it's also part of our present history as well.
So this story keeps on evolving.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It to have you put on the historian hat for
a second, I know that you are a big advocate
for Peoria County taswell County the entire district that you represent.
Tell me something interesting that you've learned as part of
this process about the Peoria area in particular, Well, what I've.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Learned about the Peory area, and really the surrounding in
Central Illinois area is that there is a lot of
families that were engaged in being homeless families for the
Underground Railroad. I've run into a lot of people whose
ancestors came through and settled in this area because of that.
One of the interesting stories is that of Frank mccorter
is from the Olton area. There's an interesting book out
written by his grandson, Jerald mccorter about how he came
(07:36):
to Illinois from Missouri and how he purchased the freedom
of his family, how they established their own community near Philadelphia.
There's hackets of this history that is really exciting and
needs to be told because this is part of who
we are.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
That's one of the things we're really trying to do
here with the Freedom Trails Commission is we're empowering communities
to tell their own stories.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes we are. Everybody's got a story that needs to
be told, and we're trying to create the framework or
the avenue by which these stories can really come to life.
Because people want to tell these stories, they want to
know about it. It's really literally all over Illinois that
are working on local aspects of their own history. And
we need to tap into that. We need to make
sure that that's available and easily to access from anybody
(08:15):
that is interested.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Final thoughts today, Senator, I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Just really excited about this. I think that this is
an idea that as soon as we've submitted the legislation
to create the Underground Railroad Task Force, I started getting
emails and phone calls, as did Representative Debi Meyers Martin.
People wanted to be involved in this, and it just
had a life of its own. Remember talking to Senator
Georis Turner and she said the same thing. She had
people contacting her office about how do we get involved
(08:38):
in this? So this is something that we didn't create,
we just kind of tapped into. There is interest here.
There is really a desire to help explore who we
were and tell that story. And I think it's exciting
for all of us in Illinois and this will be
a good project.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
State Senator Dave Kaylor As always, thank you for the
conversation and joining the Sound of the State podcast.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Thank you co
Welcome to this episode of the Sound of the State
podcast from the Illinois Senate Done Credit Caucus in Springfield.
I'm Coolbyhoff, joined on Zoom today by State Senator Dave
Taylor of Peoria. Senator Taylor, welcome back to the podcast.
Our conversation today builds on a subject that we talked
about previously, the Underground Railroad Task Force, which was created
through legislation that you carried in the Senate, and a
(00:21):
follow up piece of legislation to that effort is the
Freedom Trails Commission. That's our subject today, Senate to Bill
sixteen oh seven. Tell me a little bit about the
Freedom Trails Commission and what it looks to do.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, Thank you, Koby. What this does is it tries
to link together all the underground railroad sites and historical
places that are really scattered throughout Illinois, and we want
to create a statewide map or database so that people
who are interested in uncovering more about this history and
about the stories of the freedom seekers that aimed Illinois
to seek their freedom from slavery, and trying to link
up all these communities that have all done a lot
(00:55):
of work and of their own interesting local stories to
tell to link it into a statewide database, people have
a better understanding of the totality of what this history
is about.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Of course, Senator, one important aspect of any commission is
who's involved in the process, not only who is on
the commission itself, but who's involved in selecting those individuals.
Who's going to make up this specific commission, and what
are we going to task it with doing.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The commission's going to include eleven members, ten members and
a chairperson pointed by the governor. It includes public officials, historians, educators,
community leaders, anybody with a deep knowledge of African American
history or underground railroad history. These will be people that'll
be appointed by the governor, but I'm sure beyond that
there'll be all kinds of committees and other phinoff groups
that people can get involved at really whatever level they
(01:39):
want to. This is I think an important step for Illinois.
There is a National Underground Railroad Museum which is in Cincinnati,
but Illinois's history is so rich and untapped at this
point that I think it's going to be exciting for
people throughout the state.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Senator as in Illinois, and I think it's important that
we recognize our history and how we got to where
we are today and really recognize that our state was
more than just a stop on the underground railroad. It
was beacon of hope for those fleeing slaveries. So what
is the Freedom Trails Commission going to be doing to
identify areas across the state linked to the underground Railroad
(02:12):
and what resources are we using to find those areas well?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The history out there exists, so there's a lot of
community groups that are working already to uncover some of
the history of their particular area. What we want to
do is try to bring these together and try to
give a database or a focal point so that people
can explore whatever they want to explore in whatever region
they want to And really it goes from the top
of Illinois to the bottom. Every place in Illinois has
some kind of history regarding the freedom seekers in the
(02:37):
underground Railroad one example, and I want to uplift the
memory of Art Wilson. Art was a doorman with the
Illinois Senate. He served in that capacity for yew years.
When we first brought this buill to the Senate, Art
grammy me one day and he said, Senator, you no
I'm very interested in this and I do work in
my area in Jacksonville, and so Art became a very
invaluable part of our Underground Railroad Task Force. Art passed
(02:59):
away just this last summer, and we're certainly going to
miss him. He represents the people who really want to
keep this story alive and want to explore what it
meant to their family or to their region. So I
just want to remember our Wilson as one of the
heroes of this ongoing story of Illinois and the underground
Railroad and the freedom seekers.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
State Senator Dave Kaylor with me on the podcast today. Senator,
let's tie in a little bit of not only what
we're looking to do here with the Freedom Frails Commission,
but the Underground Railroad Task Force. We did, of course,
do a previous conversation on that subject part of the
Sound of the State podcast series. Tell me a little
bit about what the Underground Railroad Task Force did and
some of the things that we've discovered through that process
so far.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
The Underground Railroad Task Force started out last year. We
passed the bill about a year and a half ago,
and then we actually set up the timeline for the
task force to meet, and so we've had meetings every month.
We had committees that were broken down into looking at
educational looking at history sites, looking at different aspects of
how we could really promote and uncover more of this history.
That was brought together and put into a report that
(03:57):
was issued both the governor and too the legislature. Here's
all the things that we've gone through, and here's our recommendation.
The recommendation was to create an ongoing commission to keep
this thing as a permanent kind of an activity and
looking at this story. Yeah, it was a real success
and a real victory or members of the task force.
And it wasn't just a task us members themselves. We
had a little expanded group that also involved others who
(04:18):
were involved in some of these committees. People are pretty
excited about this because this is the next step of
saying to Glennollyan really to the world that this history
is important and we're going to treat it as such,
and where I really enhance it and make it accessible
to anybody who wants it.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Let's get a little deeper into some of the history
of Illinois and the underground railroad. Of course, Illinois being
a northern state in the Civil War and throughout that
area of American history. I think there's a lot of
people that don't maybe understand or maybe just outright don't
know that the state did in fact have a role
in the underground Railroad more than just maybe the obvious
parts of southern Illinois along the Ohio River. I know
(04:51):
you love to talk about Peoria and its history any
chance that you get, Senator, Peoria itself has a bit
of an interesting history with the underground Railroad. Talk to
me a little bit about to that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
There are sites and early give credit to John Ackerman,
the county for Taswell County. John came to me with
the idea about trying to do something to help promote
this history because he was working with a group in
Haswell County identifying grave markers of families that were the
host families or the underground railroad sites. And myself and
some of the members of the NAACP, we went over
one afternoon and are participated in one of these ceremonies
(05:23):
to the Aavy recognition at a grave marker to one
of these families. And it was out of the discussion
that ahead of John, we said, well, what else could
we do. I said, well, what about trying to somehow
link together all the stories that exist not only in
Taswell County, but other counties throughout the state and see
if we can't do something that is really more on
a purna basis, on a statewide basis. And that's what
came out of this, So from John and from the
(05:45):
folks in Taswell County who trying to recognize some of
the historical farms that were really used as underground railroad sites,
to now what the work of the commission and the
report and the bill that now establishes a full time commission.
That's all been within the last two to three years.
And that's kind of a remarkable history. But every area,
I would say in Illinois has this kind of history.
The Commission wants to get going. It's going to have
(06:06):
its own life. It's going to be able to figure
out all kinds of things and ways to promote this history.
This is exciting history, not likee for ourselves as people
who grew up and live and work in Illinois, but
really for people to come and visit the area. My
wife and I often will kind of gravitate towards historical
sites when we're traveling, because we want to know the
history of the area we've come across. As an example,
(06:26):
in Ohio going to the first Presidential library that ever constructed,
just the history of that area, all of a sudden
was something that we were just oblivious about, and now
it becomes somewhat meaningful. I think people will find that
same kind of interest in looking at Illinois and looking
at our history of how folks trying to escape slavery
came into Illinois because it was a beacon of hope
for them. Illinois is still a beacon of hope. Whether
(06:47):
you're a gay or transgender, or a woman seeking reproductive health,
Illinois is still a beacon of hope, and we have
to remember that. And so this is part of our history,
but it's also part of our present history as well.
So this story keeps on evolving.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
It to have you put on the historian hat for
a second, I know that you are a big advocate
for Peoria County taswell County the entire district that you represent.
Tell me something interesting that you've learned as part of
this process about the Peoria area in particular, Well, what I've.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Learned about the Peory area, and really the surrounding in
Central Illinois area is that there is a lot of
families that were engaged in being homeless families for the
Underground Railroad. I've run into a lot of people whose
ancestors came through and settled in this area because of that.
One of the interesting stories is that of Frank mccorter
is from the Olton area. There's an interesting book out
written by his grandson, Jerald mccorter about how he came
(07:36):
to Illinois from Missouri and how he purchased the freedom
of his family, how they established their own community near Philadelphia.
There's hackets of this history that is really exciting and
needs to be told because this is part of who
we are.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
That's one of the things we're really trying to do
here with the Freedom Trails Commission is we're empowering communities
to tell their own stories.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yes we are. Everybody's got a story that needs to
be told, and we're trying to create the framework or
the avenue by which these stories can really come to life.
Because people want to tell these stories, they want to
know about it. It's really literally all over Illinois that
are working on local aspects of their own history. And
we need to tap into that. We need to make
sure that that's available and easily to access from anybody
(08:15):
that is interested.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Final thoughts today, Senator, I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Just really excited about this. I think that this is
an idea that as soon as we've submitted the legislation
to create the Underground Railroad Task Force, I started getting
emails and phone calls, as did Representative Debi Meyers Martin.
People wanted to be involved in this, and it just
had a life of its own. Remember talking to Senator
Georis Turner and she said the same thing. She had
people contacting her office about how do we get involved
(08:38):
in this? So this is something that we didn't create,
we just kind of tapped into. There is interest here.
There is really a desire to help explore who we
were and tell that story. And I think it's exciting
for all of us in Illinois and this will be
a good project.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
State Senator Dave Kaylor As always, thank you for the
conversation and joining the Sound of the State podcast.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Thank you co
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