Champaign Co. African American Heritage Trail adds three new signs

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The Champaign County African American Heritage Trail is getting some new additions this week.

Trail organizers and officials from the Experience Champaign-Urbana Foundation will unveil three new signs on the trail, two on Wednesday and the other on Friday. The unveils will take place at 2 p.m. each day.

The first two signs will be unveiled in Douglass Park. One celebrates the importance of the Douglass Park and Community Center on Grove Street. Completed in 1946, the Douglass Center held classes in art, music and sewing and hosted activities like baseball, softball, basketball, track and field and tennis. The sign honoring the center is sponsored by the Champaign Park District.

The second sign at Douglass Park shares the history of the formation of the Douglass Branch Library. The library was in the Douglass Center for a few years before relocating to Bradley Avenue and arriving at its current space in 1997. The sign honoring the library is sponsored by the Champaign Public Library.

The third sign to be unveiled will be at Burwash Park in Savoy, and it will recognize the Underground Railroad depot owned by Mathias Lane Dunlap. An elected state representative from Chicago, Dunlap relocated his family in 1856 to a farm in modern-day Savoy. The following year, he developed a depot for the Underground Railroad and ran it until the end of the Civil War.

Dunlap later helped establish Illinois Industrial University in Urbana, which later became the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and served as one of the university’s first trustees. The sign honoring Dunlap is sponsored by the Village of Savoy.

“These signs all symbolize safe spaces for African Americans in Champaign County,” said Jayne DeLuce, President & CEO of the Experience Champaign-Urbana Foundation. “They found respite along the Underground Railroad and formed a community within Douglass Park through perseverance and connection.”

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