Madison County ILGenWeb African-American History

Madison County, ILGenWeb

African/American History in Madison County, Illinois

This is a work in progress, and I'm just getting started on this page. I would like to include biographies, newspaper clippings, photos, and stories

concerning the accomplishments, struggles, humor, and culture of Madison County's African/American Community, especially in the 1800s.

Please contact me with your information!

Newspaper Clippings Timeline

Illinois Timeline and Statistics - 1800s

Year 1800 - 298 African - Americans are residing in Illinois country per the U. S. Census of Indiana Territory; 135 are slaves and 163 are free persons of color.
Year 1810 - 781 African Americans are living in Illinois Territory per the U. S. Census: 168 are slaves and 613 are free persons of color.
Year 1818 - In December, Illinois becomes a state, adopting a constitution which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude but which permits an indenture system. 1,173 African-Americans are living in the Territory per the Illinois Territorial Census; 847 are servants or slaves and 326 are free persons of color.
Year 1819 - Future Illinois Governor Edward Coles (1822-1826) migrates from Virginia, manumitting (freeing) his own slaves en route and giving each family 160 acres of land in his newly adopted state.
Year 1820 - 1,512 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the State Census; 668 are slaves; 469 are free persons of color; 375 blacks are enumerated with no designation.
Year 1824 - In March, Governor Coles is sued for having manumitted his slaves—a clear violation of the state’s "Black Codes" ("Black Laws"). Found guilty in lower courts, this verdict is later overturned by the State Supreme Court. In August, voters defeat a call for a constitutional convention to permit slavery in the state.
Year 1830 - 2,384 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the U. S. census; 747 slaves and 1,637 free person of color.
Year 1837 - After moving his abolitionist press from St. Louis, Missouri to Alton, Illinois in 1836, Elijah P. Lovejoy is murdered by pro-slavery mob.
Year 1840 - 3,929 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the U. S. census: 331 slaves and 3,598 free persons of color.
Year 1847 - The Illinois constitutional convention adopts a proposal (to be submitted separately to the voters) which prohibits migration of free Negroes to Illinois.
Year 1847 - In March, voters overwhelmingly approve a new state constitution. Article XIV, ratified separately by a large majority, prohibits free persons of color from immigrating to Illinois and prevents slave owners from bringing slaves into the state for the purpose of setting them free.
Year 1850 - 5,436 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the 1850 Federal Census.
Year 1853 - The legislature makes it a crime to bring a free Negro into the state.
Year 1860 - 7,628 African-Americans are living in Illinois per the 1860 census.
Year 1862 - In September, President Abraham Lincoln issues his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that the rebellious states abandon their hostilities or lose their slaves by January 1, 1863.
Year 1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation is signed on January 1 declaring slaves "free" in all states and territories that are in rebellion against the Union, excluding Northern states. The Twenty-ninth United States Colored Infantry is the first Civil War regiment composed almost entirely of Illinois blacks. The exact number is probably higher, but approximately 1,811 Illinois African-Americans are identified as serving in U. S. infantry, artillery, and cavalry units during the War.
Year 1865 - The Illinois General Assembly repeals the state’s black laws and becomes the first state legislature to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution which abolishes slavery in the United States.
Year 1870 - 28,762 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the 1870 Federal Census.
Year 1874 - The Illinois General Assembly passes a law forbidding segregation in public schools.
Year 1880 - 46,368 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the 1880 Federal Census.
Year 1885 - The Illinois General Assembly passes a civil rights act which forbids racial discrimination in restaurants, hotels, theaters, railroads, streetcars and other places of public accommodation and amusement.
Year 1890 - 57,028 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the 1890 Federal Census.
Year 1900 - 85,078 African-Americans are residing in Illinois per the 1900 Federal Census.

(Source: Lincoln Presidential Library)

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NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS

FUGITIVE CASE IN ALTON, ILLINOIS

Source: Evening Chronicle, Syracuse, New York, February 23, 1853
The Chicago Times says : " On the 17th ultimo, an alleged fugitive slave was arrested by the United States Marshal, under the following circumstances: A young colored woman came to that city more than a year since, in care of a young white man, the son of her master, who resides at Memphis, Tennessee. The son brought her to Alton, and set her free. The party who came after her, proved her identity as the slave of the young man's father, upon which she was delivered over by the United States Commissioner. Was this the case of an escape on the part of the woman ? If she were in the custody or under the control of the son, (which was probably the fact,) it was not; and neither the constitution or slave laws require the remanding of the person back into slavery, unless an escape is proved. We do not observe in the proceedings any inquiry on this point. The woman was married a few weeks previous to her arrest, to a young man of Alton, named Chavers. 'Her case excited the sympathy of the benevolent of that city, and they raised by contributions the sum of twelve hundred dollars, the price demanded for her freedom, and set her at liberty." The Alton Telegraph, of the 20th ult., contains the proceedings of a meeting of colored citizens, convened to express their gratitude, to their white friends for sympathy and assistance.
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CHLOE - FORMER SLAVE, AGED 119

Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Standard, March 29, 1853

A Mr. Melvin, traveling recently in Madison county, Ill., stopped at a Negro settlement on Wood river, and calling at one of the houses, the door was opened to him by a tottering Negro, aged 90 years. On entering he found a withered old Negro female, who turned out to be the mother of his venerable host. On enquiry he learned that she was 119 years of age. She gave her name as Chloe, and says that she is a native of South Carolina, having been there the slave of a farmer named Wilson. When very young she was stolen and carried away from home by a party of Cherokee Indians, from whom she subsequently escaped. She professes to remember perfectly well Lord Cornwallis and the British officers of note who figured in the War of Independence. She is supported at present by her son, who in turn receives material assistance from a promising young stripling of forty-five or fifty.

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RILEY, ANDERSON

Source: The Evening Republic, Buffalo, New York, August 13, 1884

Anderson Riley, formerly a slave in Virginia, died recently near Alton, Illinois, claiming to be 111 years of age.

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CARTER, RICHARD

Source: Utica, New York Morning Herald, May 28, 1896

At Alton, Ill., on May 25, Richard Carter and his wife Nellie went through a marriage ceremony for the third time with no divorce intervening. Carter is a colored man, and was married in slavery times. After the war he was legally married In Virginia, but soon after the courthouse was destroyed, together with the record of his marriage. In the meantime he had lost his marriage certificate, and has since depended on the slave marriage, of which he had proof. When the supreme court decided adversely to slave marriages, Carter decided he would again go through a ceremony, so his children would be sure to inherit the competency he has saved. Carter is a mulatto of more than average intelligence.

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EMBRY, BISHOP JAMES CRAWFORD

Source: Syracuse, New York Daily Journal, August 14, 1897
By the death of Rev. James Crawford Embry, one of the bishops of the African Methodist Church, the negroes of the country have lost one of their best friends. Bishop Embry was born in Knox county. Ind., on November 2,1834. He received his early education in the schools near his home, and when 20 years old went West, where he wandered for several years, finally settling at Galena, III. and beginning study for the ministry. During 1862 he made a number of unsuccessful efforts to enter the Union army as a soldier, but eventually entered the service to carry stores from a supply-boat on the Mississippi to Gen. Grant's army. Later he was transferred to a hospital steamer and while on duty there assisted in carrying a large number of wounded soldiers to the North. In the latter part of 1883 he left the service and entered the African Methodist ministry, his first charge being at Alton, Ill. There he attended Shurtleff college to study Greek. In 1876 Mr. Embry was elected Secretary of Education by the General Conference and two years later he was appointed treasurer of the church fund by the bishops. In 1880 he became manager of the book-publishing house of the church in Philadelphia and in 1884 was made general publisher for the church, one of his duties being the editing of the Christian Record.. Mr. Embry was elected to the Bishopric of the Seventh African Methodist Episcopal district in May, 1800.

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ALTON BROTHERS GEORGE AND ARNOLD CISCO - TUSKEGEE AIRMEN

Source: The Telegraph, June 9, 2008

.... According to a letter written by Thomas E. Raglin for the Alton Museum of History and Art Inc., George Cisco, born in 1918, enrolled in the 761st Tank Battalion, then quit and enrolled in Tuskegee instead. His brother, Arnold, already was attending. George was killed on Runway 16 at Walterboro Army Airfield in South Carolina while in training for his overseas assignment when another aircraft landed on the same runway as his plane, and the two collided. George reportedly was killed in the cockpit. Arnold, born in 1921, went on to graduate and fought in combat in Italy as a flight leader. He earned the Oak Leaf Cluster of World War II, the Victory Service Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater medal. Arnold was killed in 1946, when he was coming back from a weekend in Chicago with his wife. His aircraft hit electrical wires during a rainstorm and burned. During his research, Raglin was surprised to find that all of the Tuskegee pilots were college graduates. The Ciscos both had attended the University of Illinois after their graduation from Jersey Community High School in Jerseyville. The Tuskegee Airmen were ahead of their time, because the military at that time did not believe black soldiers could handle complicated machinery, Raglin said. By fighting with bravery in Italy and by escorting several bombing missions over Berlin, Germany, without losing a single bomber under their protection to enemy aircraft, the Tuskegee Airmen proved to the country that integration in the Army was an asset. ... The brothers' younger sibling, Harlow Cisco, also served in the Army for three years, when the Korean War broke out, he was sent home, being the only living sibling of the three. George and Arnold are buried in Alton City Cemetery.

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MEMBERS OF THE COLORED GIRLS CHORUS AT ALTON HIGH SCHOOL, CLASS OF 1941

Source: The Telegraph, August 15, 2008

(photo included) Helen Johnson, Elvira Ballinger, Lula Warren, Wilda Hyndman, Doris Ballinger, Frances Ballinger, June Taylor, Helen Byrd, Maydonna Mitchell, Marion Stewart, Rosie Gilchrist, Juanita Edwards, Jewel Davis, Roberta Gordon, Wilhelmina Gordon, Ruth Davis, Mary Lou Dupree, Jamesetta Winston, Edna Keen, Rose Marie Hickman, Regina Bruce, Olive Williams, Geneva Scales, Mary Lois Bratton, Ruth Alexander, Bettye Searles, Stella Cruzat, Leona Williams, Mildred Winston, Geneva Mitchell, Choice Smith, Lucille Bradshaw, Bertha Tate and Ethel Winston.

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