Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors BureauEvent
Segregation—Our Community’s Secret presented by Dr. Mark Wyman
Segregation—Our Community’s Secret
The Museum is pleased to welcome back Dr. Mark Wyman, who will present a program on the now largely forgotten history of segregation in this community. The program will be held at the Museum on Saturday, April 11, at 1:30 p.m. in the Governor Fifer Courtroom. This program is free and open to the public.
According to Wyman, a local African American leader once commented that “People don’t know how bad it was here—even black kids don’t know how bad it was.” He referred to local customs that barred African-Americans from many aspects of life in Bloomington-Normal, which are now largely forgotten by all but those who were victims of these unwritten laws of racial exclusion. Wyman decided to investigate this for himself and began an extensive examination of local newspapers to help to help bring this part of the African American story in McLean County to light. His program will examine those findings.
Dr. Mark Wyman is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of History from Illinois State University, having taught from 1971 until his retirement in 2004. A former newspaperman, his history publications have ranged from Western hard-rock miners, to immigrants returning to Europe, to hoboes harvesting crops across the West. Wyman was also guest curator of the Museum’s past exhibit Adlai! The Life and Times of Adlai E. Stevenson II 2002-2004.
Free parking will be available at the Lincoln Parking Deck on Front Street located one block south of the Museum. The Museum can also be accessed through ground level entry on the south side of the building on Washington Street. For more information about this program, please contact the education department by calling 309-827-0428 or via email at education@mchistory.org.
Date/Time
Saturday, April 11, 2015
1:30 pm
Cost:
Location
McLean County Museum of History
200 North Main
Bloomington IL 61701
(309) 827-0428
www.mchistory.org
