Second Friday Lecture: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Illinois and on Lake Michigan

Friday, September 11  |  12pm – 1pm  |  Presented by: Dr. Larry McClellan

Dr. Larry McClellan’s program is an exploration of the journeys of freedom seekers and the networks of response that became the Underground Railroad across Illinois and onward to Detroit and freedom in Canada.  As Dr. McClellan will explain, for many coming to northeastern Illinois, their journeys to freedom combined both overland routes and travel on Lake Michigan.

Dr. Larry McClellan has written extensively about the Underground Railroad in Illinois and served on the state 2024 Task Force to create the Illinois Freedom Trails Commission. His major publications include 25 articles in the Encyclopedia of Chicago [2005]; The Underground Railroad South of Chicago [2019], co-author of To the River, The Remarkable Journey of Caroline Quarlls, a Freedom Seeker on the Underground Railroad [2019]. Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois [2023], published by Southern Illinois University Press. This received the national 2023 Memorial Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge from the Underground Railroad Free Press and a book award from the Newberry Library in 2025. 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.

After graduate work at the University of Chicago, in 1970 Dr. McClellan helped create Governors State University south of Chicago and served there for 30 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Community Studies. In the mid-70s, he was mayor of University Park (then Park Forest South). He spent four years as a senior consultant with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, and throughout his career, served as pastor with diverse congregations. His consulting, research and writing focus on freedom seekers and the Underground Railroad, and on African American and regional history south of Chicago.