Bronzeville celebrates “Juneteenth,” African ancestry, geneology 

By Miriam Cintrón 

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery took effect Jan. 1, 1863, but with few Union soldiers in Texas there was no way of enforcing the executive order there. It was not until June 19, 1865, when Union troops entered Galveston to announce the American Civil War was over, that word reached the slaves there—they were to be given their freedom. Known as "Juneteenth," that day in history now is commemorated by many African American communities throughout the United States and even in places worldwide.

In June, the Chicago/Calumet Underground Railroad Effort (C/CURE), an organization working to create a cultural tourism destination on the city’s South Side, held a gathering at Quinn Chapel AME Church, 2401 S. Wabash Ave., in Bronzeville to celebrate Juneteenth, African ancestry in general, and those who gained their freedom or died in search of it on the Underground Railroad, a series of safe havens for escaping slaves.

“It is important to remember the courage of freedom seekers, people who’d rather die than live the life of a slave,” said C/CURE President Naomi Davis. Quinn Chapel was a fitting venue for the event, having served as an Underground Railroad station and counting former slaves among its earliest members.

C/CURE’s Davis, Martha Boyd, and Diane Banta also organized the event to spread the word about their project, the Underground Railroad Living Heritage Farm & Village. For six years, C/CURE has worked to create a tourist attraction on a plot of historic land in the isolated and economically depressed area of Riverdale on the Far South Side. The area suffers from environmental degradation and social problems that C/CURE hopes to correct by creating a tourist destination that would attract visitors and new residents. The village would include mixed-income housing, a museum, lodging, fishing spots, and hiking trails, to name a few features, on the 50 acres north of the Calumet River that was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The farm that once stood at 134th Place and Ellis Avenue belonged to Jan Ton, who arrived from Holland in 1849, Boyd explained. Ton, the countrymen who journeyed with him, and their families helped slaves escape to freedom. C/CURE wants to honor them as well as the freedom seekers themselves and the American Indians and free blacks who risked their safety to help escaped slaves. C/CURE hopes to teach local residents to become business entrepreneurs and successfully redevelop the area to bring in new people without displacing current residents. The village also would feature environmentally friendly construction and green technology, such as geothermal and wind-generated energy.

The C/CURE event featured lectures on genealogy and African American-founded towns as well as a moving performance by Val Gray Ward, an actress and founder of Kuumba Theater, as a young Harriet Tubman escaping to freedom and her motivation to help others do the same. 

 

African American roots

            Preserving ancestry represents a major way to honor Juneteenth’s significant moment in history. “We stand on our ancestors’ shoulders,” said speaker Tony Burroughs, a genealogist and teacher who was a guest expert in the PBS series Oprah’s Roots. “If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here. So we owe it to them to trace their family history and tell their story to our relatives and to other historians to have that history preserved because, if we don’t do it, nobody else will do it.” He estimated the U.S. has about 60 African American genealogical societies.

            Genealogy is the most popular hobby in the country, Burroughs added, and he attributes that in part to author Alex Haley and his book and television series Roots, which traces Haley's ancestors down from 18th century slave Kunta Kinte. “Roots changed the landscape of American television and changed the landscape of American and African American genealogy,” Burroughs explained. In fact, Haley’s influential book had a worldwide effect. An English keynote speaker at the New England Historic Genealogical Society said Haley started the boom in genealogy in England, according to Burroughs.

Burroughs came to genealogy via Haley in 1969 when Southern Illinois University’s Black Student Union invited the author to speak to students in honor of the university’s new African American Studies program, for which the BSU had lobbied. At the time, Haley was best known for writing The Autobiography of Malcolm X and still was tracing his family history for Roots, which was published in 1976 and made into a television series the next year.

Burroughs was fascinated that Haley had not only traced his genealogy all the way back to Africa but filled in the details along the way; little did Burroughs know at the time that he would dedicate his life to the same effort for his own family. Since then, Burroughs has gone back seven generations on two family lines and made some remarkable findings, including ancestors who fought in the Civil War and the War of 1812. He also has scanned more than 1,000 family photos and recorded interviews with many relatives who have since died.

In the 1960s, about the only people doing genealogy were those trying to get into elite groups including the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Mayflower Society, and societies for descendants of European royalty, Burroughs noted. Through Haley, Burroughs and many others learned one did not have to be an elitist to do genealogy. After Roots was released, geneology "seekers could not even get to microfilm machines anymore in the National Archives because the lines went out the door and down the block,” Burroughs said.

Haley’s achievement was especially significant because of the obstacles he faced while researching his family history. “To understand the historical context of Alex Haley’s research back in 1969, we have to really place ourselves into Alex’s footsteps," Burroughs noted. "Back then there was no Google,” cell phones, fax machines, scanners, camcorders, digital tape recorders, genealogy software, personal computers, or any of the things that make researching ancestry today so easy, Burroughs explained. Haley “had to do all his research by going to the location,” for example, taking a train and airplane to the National Archives to get census records, “handwriting records, transcribing them. You can imagine how time consuming it was and how costly it was,” he added.

Today doing genealogy is relatively uncomplicated, and Burroughs urged the audience to interview their family members and preserve family heirlooms and documents for future generations to enjoy. Making the task easier are all the genealogy books and resources that make census, birth, marriage, death, and other records so readily available. Some good resources include Ancestry.com, Cyndislist.com, Footnote.com, and Familysearch.org. Also, visit Tonyburroughs.com for tips on doing genealogy.

 

African-founded towns

            Long before slavery ended in the U.S., free and escaped Africans began establishing their own towns in southern Illinois, explained Toni Costonie, a researcher and writer for the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission, which was created to study the impact of politics, economics, and society on slavery and to integrate its findings into elementary and high school curricula.

Costonie said three types of free black towns existed. “Maroon” communities consisted of escaped slaves who hid in the wilderness. Other towns were founded by Africans who had bought their freedom, and “assisted communities” were created by Africans with the help of white people. The most well known free black town is Brooklyn, IL, a maroon community established in 1813 by escaped slaves from Missouri. From Brooklyn, the Rev. Paul Quinn helped run the Underground Railroad; he and others would cross the Mississippi River into Missouri to preach and bring slaves into Illinois.

            Another free black town was East St. Louis, which was built on Cahokia Indian Mounds, part of an ancient American Indian city that was designated a United Nations World Heritage site in 1982. Today, African Americans and American Indians work together to save the approximately 10,000-year-old mounds from being destroyed for use as surface material for highways.

New Philadelphia is another of the many free black towns founded in Illinois. Frank McWorter of Kentucky established it in 1831 after buying his freedom and later brought about 30 members of his family to join him, Costonie said. The commission continues to learn more and make exciting discoveries as its members excavate historic sites throughout the state, she added.

C/CURE will host the 2nd Annual True North Underground Railroad Festival on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 18 and 19, at the Jan Ton Farm at 900 E. 134th St. For more information on this and other C/CURE events, visit www.Chicagolandundergroundrailroad.org or call (773) 678-9541.