There are numerous programs to expand the city’s Underground Railroad story in the community. Take advantage of the wonderful opportunities noted below.

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Journey to Freedom: Illinois’ Underground Railroad Exhibit Opening

January 17, 2025, 7 PM at the Shawnee Hills Art Council, 125 W. Davie Street, Anna, IL

Join us for the exhibit Journey to Freedom exhibit opening at the Shawnee Hills Arts Center. Come see the exhibit and learn 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.

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Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road


February 21, 2025, 7 PM at the Shawnee Hills Art Council, 125 W. Davie Street, Anna, IL

Songs of the Illinois Freedom Road is the powerful new musical performance featuring the songs, stories, and struggles of the Illinois Underground Railroad
The show features rare first-person accounts of freedom seekers who passed through Illinois. Highlighted stories include John and Mary Little, who traveled on foot 140 miles to Chicago, and George Burroughs, a black Canadian who worked on the Illinois Central Railroad where he helped smuggle escapees to freedom.

Chris Vallillo extensively researched the subject using primary source documents such as the 1857 Slave Narratives of Canada and the WPA Slave Narratives as well as the most recent scholarship on the subject. Vallillo combines these powerful stories with eleven historic songs that were sung by the enslaved to inspire and share knowledge among themselves.

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The Presumption of Freedom: The Illinois Supreme Court and the Fate of Slavery in the Prairie State with Samuel Wheeler

February, 22, 2025, Time TBD, at the Shawnee Hills Art Council, 125 W. Davie Street, Anna, IL

Though Illinois entered the Union as a free state in 1818, slavery continued to exist within its borders for decades. Freedom seekers, abolitionists, and pro-slavery forces turned to the judicial system to determine the fate of slavery in Illinois. This talk will highlight several of the nearly two dozen slave cases that reached the Illinois Supreme Court and examine the Court’s role in ending slavery in the Prairie State.

Presented by Samuel Wheeler, Director of History Programs, Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission