Third Friday Presents: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad on and near Lake Michigan
Friday, June 20th at 7pm
In the decades before the Civil War, more than 4500 enslaved people escaping from the South traveled across Illinois, with many coming to and through the Chicago region.
With maps and images, historian and author Larry McClellan, explores their stories --particularly those of people who left Chicago via Lake Michigan.
Larry is the author of Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois [2023]. The book received the national 2023 Memorial Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge from the Underground Railroad Free Press. In 2022 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois State Historical Society for his contributions to Illinois history, and in 2024, he served on the Illinois Underground Railroad Task Force reporting to the state legislature.