---

Opening Reception- Journey to Freedom Illinois’ Underground Railroad Exhibit

Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 5:30-6:30 PM
Decatur Public Library

Join us to visit the exhibit and hear about the Underground Railroad in Illinois. Heather Feezor, Program Manager for Looking for Lincoln, will share about the creation of the exhibit and more information about some of the individuals featured in the exhibit. Light refreshments will be served.

---

Laura Keyes presents “Lucy Pettengill, Station Operator on the Underground Railroad”

Thursday, March 20, 2025, 6-7:30 PM
Decatur Public Library, Madden Auditorium

This program finds Lucy Pettengill, resident of Peoria, IL, in March 1857. Learn about the struggles she and her fellow abolitionists encountered, in order to assist freedom seekers on their way north.

---

Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road

Saturday, April 5, 2025, 2pm
Decatur Public Library, Madden Auditorium

Award winning folk musician and folklorist Chris Vallillo brings the music and the stories of the Underground Railroad in Illinois to life in this engaging and powerful show featuring first person accounts of Freedom Seekers as well as performances and insights into the music that drove this historic movement. “While traditional accounts of the underground railroad generally dismiss Illinois, our state had more miles bordering slave states than any other” said Vallillo “and those borders were rivers which made for excellent escape routes.

---

Pre-Civil War Quilts: Secret Codes to Freedom on the Underground Railroad

Tuesday, April 29, 2025, 6:30 pm
Decatur Public Library, Madden Auditorium

“Discover the hidden codes and secret messages within family stories of 18 colorful, beautifully hand-crafted quilts that tell the significance to helping slaves escape on the Underground Railroad in this multi-media historical presentation.”