Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s newest military memorial was dedicated during the county’s observance of the Juneteenth holiday on Wednesday morning, 19 June 2024. City, county, and state officials, as well as community leaders, veterans, and members of the public gathered for the Juneteenth ceremony on the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn, where the county had placed its new memorial honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in that regiment during the Civil War.
The 29th U.S. Colored Infantry was one of the Union Army regiments that took part in the first Juneteenth on 19 June 1865, when the end of slavery and the absolute equality of whites and blacks were proclaimed at Galveston, Texas, about two months after the surrender of the Confederate States of America.
Shown is the new Tazewell County 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial, dedicated during the county’s Juneteenth celebration in 2024. The monument lists the 12 men from Pekin and Elm Grove Township, Tazewell County, who served in the U.S. Colored Infantry during the Civil War.
A yellow rose of remembrance graces Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial outside the County Courthouse in downtown Pekin following dedication ceremonies held Wednesday, 19 June 2024, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.
Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry memorial, which was dedicated on Juneteenth in 2024, was placed adjacent to the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. Six men from Tazewell County, five of whom served in the 29th U.S.C.I. and one in the 55th Massachusetts U.S.C.I., joyously took part in the first Juneteenth in 1865.
Master of ceremonies during the dedication was Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds John C. Ackerman. Following the posting of the colors by the Tazewell County Color Guard and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, Pekin Mayor Mary Burress formally welcomed everyone to the Juneteenth celebration and memorial dedication, and noted how very appropriate it was that the dedication of the new memorial took place during Pekin’s ongoing Bicentennial celebrations. Burress also recalled last year’s Juneteenth celebration in downtown Pekin, when Legins-Costley Park was dedicated in honor of Nance Legins-Costley and her son Pvt. William Henry Costley, who was himself a member of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and a Juneteenth 1865 eyewitness. William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, offered an address in which he noted that the county’s new memorial included the State of Illinois’ first and only Illinois State Historical Marker that told the story of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, which was the largest African-American regiment in the Union Army during the Civil War. After Furry’s address, Jared Olar, local history program coordinator at the Pekin Public Library, gave brief biographical sketches of the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops. Nine of those 12 men came from Pekin, while three of them came from Elm Grove Township east of Pekin.
After Olar’s historical review, Dirksen Congressional Center director Tiffany White spoke about U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin’s crucial role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law a century after Tazewell County’s “Men of the 29th” stepped up to fight for their country and for an end to slavery. White also noted that the U.S. Senate approved the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by a vote of 73-27 — in a vote that took place on Juneteenth that summer. After White’s speech, Illinois Rep. Travis Weaver, who represents Pekin and Tazewell County in the Illinois General Assembly, presented an Illinois House of Representatives Resolution honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and Tazewell County’s African-American soldiers that was formally adopted by the Illinois House on 15 May 2024.
The ceremony concluded with the formal unveiling of the memorial, which includes an Illinois State Historical Marker as well as a stone monument provided by Abel Vault & Monument and Amazon. Engraved on the monument are the names, ranks, companies, and homes of Tazewell County’s 12 African-American Civil War soldiers. Eleven of those soldiers enlisted in the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, while a 12th volunteer who had stepped forward to serve in the 29th was instead assigned to the 55th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, which had suffered casualties and was in need of more men. Two of those 12 men, Pvt. Morgan Day and Pvt. Thomas Shipman, gave their lives in service to their country, and had long had their names engraved on the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. The other 10 were Sgt. Marshall Ashby, Cpl. Nathan Ashby, Cpl. William Henry Ashby, Pvt. William J. Ashby, Pvt. William Henry Costley, Pvt. George H. Hall, Pvt. Edward W. Lewis, Pvt. Wilson Price, Pvt. Thomas Marcellus Tumbleson, and Pvt. George W. Lee.
Rev. Marvin Hightower, pastor of Liberty Church in Peoria and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Peoria Branch, offered closing remarks and a prayer of benediction for those in attendance and the new memorial.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman served as master of ceremonies at the dedication of the county’s new memorial honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from the county who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops.
The colors are posted at the start of the ceremony dedicating the new Tazewell County 29th U.S. Colored Infantry on the courthouse lawn in downtown Pekin during the local Juneteenth celebration, 19 June 2024.
Pekin Mayor Mary Burress addresses the attendees at the dedication of Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial on Juneteenth, 19 June 2024. Listening to Burress are Tazewell County Board members Nick Graff and Kaden Nelms and Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman.
Members of the public, veterans, and community officials listen as Pekin Mayor Mary Burress welcomes them to Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s Juneteenth 2024 celebration.
William Furry, executive directory of the Illinois State Historical Society, speaks during the dedication of Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial, which includes a new ISHS marker that tells the story of the 29th U.S.C.I.
Attendees listen to William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, during the dedication of Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial. The dedication was a part of Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s observance of Juneteenth. The 29th U.S.C.I. participated in the first Juneteenth in 1865, and six African-American men from Tazewell County were eyewitnesses of that first Juneteenth when the end of slavery and absolute equality of whites and blacks was proclaimed at Galveston, Texas.
Tiffany White, director of the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Research Center in Pekin, tells of Dirksen’s crucial role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was approved a century 12 African-American men from Tazewell County volunteered to fight in the Union Army during the Civil War.
During Tazewell County’s 2024 Juneteenth celebration, Ill. Rep. Travis Weaver addressed those in attendance and read an Illinois House of Representative resolution that he had offered to honor the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and Tazewell County’s Men of the 29th.
Illinois State Historical Society executive directory William Furry watches as the stone monument of Tazewell County’s U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial is unveiled at the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn during the Juneteenth 2024 celebration in downtown Pekin. Moments before, Furry and Tazewell County officials had unveiled the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry ISHS marker. Lifting the veil from the stone monument are Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman, Rev. Marvin Hightower, president of NAACP-Peoria Branch, Pekin Mayor Mary Burress, Steve Saal, superintendent of the Tazewell County Veterans Assistance Commission, and Maureen Naughtin of the Pekin YWCA’s Coalition for Equality.
Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman introduces Pastor Marvin Hightower, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-Peoria Branch, at the dedication of Tazewell County’s 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial during the county’s Juneteenth celebration.
Rev. Marvin Hightower, pastor of Liberty Church in Peoria and president of the NAACP-Peoria Branch, addresses the attendees at Tazewell County’s and Pekin’s Juneteenth celebration on the Tazewell County Courthouse lawn on 19 June 2024. Rev. Hightower concluded with a benedictory prayer of dedication for Tazewell County’s new 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Memorial.
Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman shows Illinois House Resolution No. 782 recognizing and honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in the Union Army’s Colored Troops during the Civil War.
A copy of Illinois House Resolution No. 782, offered by Rep. Travis Weaver and adopted by the House on 15 May 2024, recognizing and honoring the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry and the 12 men from Tazewell County who served in the Colored Infantry during the Civil War.
The name of Pvt. Morgan Day of Pekin, a member of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, Co. G, is engraved on the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. While serving his country, Day contracted dysentery and died in Louisiana in May 1865.
The names of two of Tazewell County’s Civil War fallen, Milton S. Summers of the 5th Iowa Cavalry and Thomas Shipman of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, are memorialized together on the Tazewell County Veterans Memorial. The juxtaposition of their names is a remarkable coincidence, because in 1827 Summers’ father Johnson Sommers helped rescue Shipman’s mother and siblings from kidnappers who sought to force the Shipman family back into slavery.
Long a pillar of Pekin’s community life, the Pekin YWCA at 315 Buena Vista Ave. was established about a century ago, starting out in 1927 as an affiliate of the Peoria Young Women’s Christian Association. The Pekin YWCA obtained its own articles of incorporation from the State of Illinois on 29 Oct. 1928 — the date that the Pekin Y regards as its “birthday.” The following year, on 29 April 1929 the Pekin YWCA obtained its own charter as an independent member of the national Young Women’s Christian Association, and it has operated under that charter ever since. Manda Brown, executive director of the YWCA of Pekin, says the association is already looking ahead to its 100th birthday which it will celebrate on 29 Oct. 2028.
A close-up of the YWCA of Pekin’s facility at 315 Buena Vista Ave., from an Aug, 2022 Google Street View image.
A Google Street View image of the YWCA of Pekin’s facility at 315 Buena Vista Ave., from Aug. 2022.
Plan of the Pekin YWCA facility at 315 Buena Vista Ave. from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.
Describing the Pekin YWCA’s mission and community role, a Pekin Daily Times article dated 24 Feb. 1929 says, “The Y. W. occupies a unique position as a community meeting place for hundreds of women and girls, and no less than ten organizations who are in no way connected to them hold their regular meetings there. It is a community organization endeavoring in every way possible to co-operate with other organizations.”
The history of the YWCA on a national level began in 1873, when a student association was established on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Since then, the Young Women’s Christian Association has grown to 194 local associations. Though the YWCA started out as a Christian mission and included chapel services, it is no longer officially or strictly a religious organization. “It’s an organization with Christian roots, but we no longer teach any particular religion or have any religious offerings,” explained Melinda Figge, past executive director of the Pekin YWCA on the occasion of the Pekin Y’s 75th anniversary in 2004. “But I think that our willingness and desire to help people, to empower people, comes out of our Christian beliefs that all people are created equal.”
The YWCA of Pekin’s community programs include an early learning center, physical fitness, swimming lessons, and adult literacy and learning. The association has also long been active in promoting social justice and working against racism, with its Coalition for Equality as one of its prominent committees. In their mission statement adopted in 2009, the Pekin YWCA says it is “dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.” The association has a 14-woman board of directors under the presidency of Hope McAllister, and, as mentioned above, is headed by Manda Brown, executive director, Meredith Kerley, Early Learning Center director, Anna Green, Adult Literacy director, and Maureen Naughtin, Community Outreach director.
Martha (Herget) Steinmetz (1868-1947), founding president of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Pekin.
From its small start in 1927, it did not take long until, by early 1929, Pekin YWCA membership has grown to include 600 adults and 300 members of the YWCA Girl Reserves, with a 70-member Business Girls Fellowship Club and a Blue Tri Club of 30 members. The Pekin YWCA’s founding president was Martha (Herget) Steinmetz (1868-1947), daughter of John Herget (1830-1899) and widow of George A. Steinmetz (1864-1915). The Pekin YWCA in 1929 also hired Mrs. Mary Watt as its first full-time secretary.
Though the Pekin YWCA has been based on Buena Vista Ave. for more than six decades, their first building was the former Stoltz House that used to be located at 612 Broadway. In more recent newspaper reports on the YWCA’s history, however, the address of their first building is sometimes given as 616 or 610 Broadway. Nevertheless, old city directories and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps make clear that the Stoltz House was at 612 Broadway. Demolished decades ago during the construction of St. Joseph Catholic School (the site is now part of the school’s playground/parking lot), for many years it was the home of John W. Stoltz (1825-1899), a prominent Pekin businessman who served a Pekin mayor in 1872. After his death, his widow Emma Stoltz (1845-1923) continued to live there until her death, after which Frank Brown lived there for a few years.
A drawing of the old Stoltz Home that formerly stood at 612 Broadway. Formerly the home of Pekin Mayor John W. Stoltz (1825-1899), this house served as the first YWCA of Pekin building from 1927 to 1931, and housed the Pekin YWCA Tea Room.
This detail from the Sept. 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows the Stoltz Home at 612 Broadway. In 1927 the Stoltz Home became the first location of the Pekin YWCA, which operated from that building until 1931.
The Pekin YWCA first appeared in Pekin city directories in 1928, when it was listed at 612 Broadway as the Young Women’s Christian Association Tea Room, managed by Mrs. Emma Lutz.
The above-quoted 24 Feb. 1929 Pekin Daily Times article says that when the Pekin YWCA sought a building to serve their needs, “The Stoltz homestead was purchased and remodeled. It is situated on Broadway, convenient to the business section of the town.” One of the original services provided by the Pekin YWCA at 612 Broadway was a tea room that provided lunch to guests for a modest fee. Of the tea room, the article says:
“The tea room with its checked gingham curtains and its ever present orange candles attract many who are living temporarily in the city and those who are looking for wholesome food under pleasant surroundings. While it has always paid its own way, yet it is not a money-making proposition. It is there to give service and invites its patrons to ‘bide a wee’ if they so desire.”
Pekin’s YWCA only occupied the old Stoltz Home for four years. Seeking a more spacious building, in 1931 the YWCA purchased of the Otto Koch Home at 310 S. Fourth St., former home of Otto Koch (1849-1920), who was co-founder and later president of the W. A. Boley Ice Company. After Otto’s death, his widow Ida Koch (1850-1929) remained at the home until her death. The YWCA of Pekin was the next owner and occupant of the Otto Koch Home, where the YWCA remained from 1931 to 1959.
An early 1930s photograph of the YWCA of Pekin’s second building, the former Otto Koch Home that formerly stood at 310 S. Fourth St.
This photograph taken in 1941 shows the YWCA of Pekin’s facility at 310 S. Fourth St. The current YWCA facility is located on Buena Vista Ave., behind the site of their former building on Fourth Street.
The Otto Koch Home at 310 S. Fourth St., and the Alice L. Russell Home at 315 Buena Vista Ave. are shown in this detail from the Sept. 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin. In 1931, the Otto Koch Home became the home of the Pekin YWCA. The Russell Home was later the home of the Erven G. Abel family, who lived there in the 1950s just before the YWCA purchased the property to build a new, larger facility.
A year after moving to 310 S. Fourth St., the Pekin Young Women’s Christian Association was listed in the 1932 Pekin city directory with Mrs. Hulda M. Harmel as general secretary.
This photograph from the 3 July 1942 Pekin Daily Times shows the YWCA of Pekin’s then-new Reading and Recreation Room that had just been opened at the Y’s 310 S. Fourth St. facility. The new room was the brainchild of the Y’s Education Committee headed by Mrs. Louise Reuter. Shown at the left are Mary Jean Dimler and Mary Holiman playing a game at the table with Pauline Fox standing behind then. Reading magazines on the couch are Ruth Dennis, Betty Alfs, Billie Jean Allen, Shirley Petrie, and Betty Thacker.
By the mid-1950s, it had long been evident that the Pekin Y needed a new and larger facility. The YWCA then acquired the property at 315 Buena Vista Ave. and moved one block east to a lot behind their former 310 S. Fourth St. building, which has since been demolished. The house at 315 Buena Vista, formerly the home of Erven G. Abel (1918-2010) and his family, was torn down in 1958 and the present facility – which included a swimming pool — was built in its place. Notably, the Y’s next-door neighbor to the south is the mid-19th century historic Gaither-Dirksen Home, home of U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen and his wife Louella, and before that the residence of Mary E. Gaither who played a chief role in the plans to build the 1902 Pekin Carnegie Library. Since the construction of the 315 Buena Vista facility, the YWCA’s building has undergone two large expansions, with the second one being completed in 2001. Their swimming pool has also been refurbished.
The same year the Pekin Y’s current facility opened at 315 Buena Vista Av., the 1959 Pekin city directory listed the association, with Mrs. Idalee L. Woodson as executive director.
This swim team group photograph dates from the earlier years of the Pekin YWCA’s swimming pool.
Besides giving program and office space for the Pekin YWCA and its own activities, the facility at 315 Buena Vista continues to provide space for other community groups, with rooms and its pool available for rental. That is only fitting, because the Pekin YWCA building is in fact Pekin’s civic center. The Pekin Y became the city’s civic center in the 1980s, at a time when the association was facing numerous financial challenges, with a decline in donations, a leaky roof, a boiler in need of repair, and a payroll that couldn’t be met.
The Pekin YWCA then worked with the city to obtain a grant from the Department of Commerce and Community affairs. That provided enough money to repair the structure and even build a daycare addition. As part of the arrangement, title to the building and to a large portion of the Y’s land is held by the City of Pekin, which legally designated the YWCA as the official civic center of Pekin. That is why Tazewell County records list the official owner of the 315 Buena Vista property as “Pekin Civic Center Authority c/o YWCA.” Eventually full title will revert to the YWCA.
The decade of the Sixties was a time of momentous changes in the United States, and the Civil Rights Movement was responsible for many of those changes. The movement’s most historic achievements included the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed racial discrimination across the board, a major legislative victory won with the help of Pekin’s own Sen. Everett M. Dirksen and that will have its 60th anniversary this summer.
Besides Dirksen’s pivotal role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act, there is another notable Pekin connection to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement: two Pekin clergymen and one Marquette Heights clergyman were present in Selma, Alabama, for the third of the historic marches there in March 1965. Of those three ministers, one passed away in 2011. I was able to contact and speak to one of the two ministers still living.
This Pekin Daily Times photograph, which was published above the fold on the front page of the 23 March 1965 Pekin Daily Times, shows the three Pekin-area ministers who had taken part in the first leg of the 21-25 March 1965 March for Voting Rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Shown from left to right are the Rev. Lewis Andrew, pastor of First United Presbyterian Church of Pekin, the Rev. David B. Jones, pastor of Marquette Heights Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Larry E. Conrad, assistant minister of First Methodist Church of Pekin. The three are shown reading news coverage of the march to bring themselves up to date on its progress.
Following hard on their 1964 victory, the Civil Rights Movement’s activists shepherded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues then turned their attention to securing the voting rights of African-Americans. But their direct but non-violent challenge to laws in the South that had all but nullified the 15th Amendment for Southern African-Americans was met with fierce and increasingly violent resistance.
Southern racists had already resorted to violence and terror during the run-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s passage, including the KKK’s bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on 15 Sept. 1963, that took the lives of four African-American girls and injured 20 of the church’s members.
On 18 Feb. 1965 came another instance of racist violence, when Alabama state troopers beat civil rights protestors at Marion, Ala., near Selma. In this incident, the troopers shot Jimmie Lee Jackson as he tried to protect his mother from the troopers’ blows. Jackson died eight days later.
In response, Dr. King organized a march from Selma to the Alabama capital at Montgomery on Sunday, 7 March 1965. But state troopers violently disrupted the march, from which that day has been known ever since as Bloody Sunday. Victims of the troopers’ violence included Amelia Boynton, who was beaten unconscious, and John Lewis (1940-2020), who was beaten and his skull fractured. Photographs and news footage of this incident shocked the nation.
The day after Bloody Sunday, Dr. King sent out a call to clergy, asking ministers of all religions to join him in Selma. “The people of Selma will struggle on for the soul of the nation, but it is befitting that all Americans help to bear the burden. I call, therefore, on clergy of all faiths, to join me in Selma,” King said in a telegram. King’s request was further distributed by the National Council of Churches.
The next attempted march from Selma was on “Turnaround Tuesday,” 9 March 1965, when King and the marchers stopped and turned around rather than challenge the troopers blocking their way. That night, the Rev. James Reeb, 38, a Unitarian Universalist minister, was clubbed and beaten by a group of white men in Selma, dying of his injuries two days later.
Asking President Lyndon B. Johnson to protect the marchers, King and his colleagues organized a third march from Selma to Montgomery, to begin on Sunday, 21 March 1965. The march was to be conducted in stages or “legs” with a plan to reach the Montgomery state capitol steps on Thursday, 25 March 1965.
Meanwhile here in Tazewell County, the Rev. David Bebb Jones, who was then 30 years of age, pastor of Marquette Heights Presbyterian Church, and his friend and mentor the Rev. Lewis Edward “Lew” Andrew (1921-2011), then 43 years old, pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Pekin, were busy planning a Session retreat on Friday, 19 March 1965, when they got a call at 2 p.m. from Ernest Lewis, director of the Commission of Religion and Race for the United Presbyterian Synod of Illinois, who had received King’s request for help via the National Council of Churches: “We need you in Selma.”
In a telephone interview this week on Monday, Rev. Jones told me that in the planned Session retreat he and Rev. Andrew would have focused on Ephesians 6:12-13, in which the Apostle Paul wrote:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
“It made no sense to us to ‘retreat to talk’ when the need was to march for justice,” Jones wrote in a 2011 tribute following Rev. Andrew’s death. Interpreting the Selma marchers’ call for help as a call from God, Andrew and Jones had meetings with their Sessions that Friday night to arrange for their temporary absence.
Andrew and Jones told their Church Sessions that they planned to march in Selma. Jones said his Session then debated whether their pastor would be there “on vacation,” or would participate with the Session’s permission as representative of his church, or would participate with the Session’s permission but not representing the church. Jones said the Session meeting was somewhat contentious, but in the end they voted 6-2 to approve his going to Selma but not officially representing the church.
That same day, Dr. King’s message was also conveyed via the National Council of Churches to Pekin First United Methodist Church, where that church’s assistant minister the Rev. Larry Eugene Conrad, then 29, answered King’s request to come to Selma. Conrad joined Andrew and Jones, and the three left Pekin together at 2 a.m. early Saturday, 20 March 1965, driving over 700 miles so they could arrive in time to join the first leg of the march.
Jones told me his wife Ann very much would have liked to have come to the march, but the Joneses then had two young girls to care for, and they weren’t sure how safe it would be. It was during their drive to Selma that the ministers heard the news that President Johnson had “federalized” the Alabama National Guard with orders to protect the marchers. Jones said some guardsmen had prior to that used violence against them, so Andrew, Jones, and Conrad weren’t sure whether the National Guard would protect them.
On Saturday afternoon, 20 March 1965, the Pekin Daily Times brought the front page headline, “LBJ Federalizes Ala. Guard.” Immediately below that was: “3 Pekin Area Ministers Enroute To Selma – To Join March For the First 14 Miles.” Alongside the photograph portraits of Conrad, Andrew, and Jones was this story:
On 20 March 1965, the front page of the Pekin Daily Times brought the news that two Pekin clergymen and one Marquette Heights clergyman had answered Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. call for Christian ministers to come to Selma, Alabama, to march for civil rights for African-Americans.
Three Pekin area ministers left Pekin at 2 a.m. today to drive to Selma, Alabama, where they plan to march for the first 14 miles of the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
According to reports, the Pekin area trio of ministers will take in the first stage of the 54-mile march that will be led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
MINISTERS KNOWN TO be taking the trip from the Pekin area are the Rev. Lewis Andrew, First United Presbyterian Church of Pekin, the Rev. David B. Jones, Marquette Heights United Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Larry Conrad, First Methodist Church, Pekin.
This march is being taken in protest of the voter registration discrimination alleged to be practiced in Alabama.
According to the Rev. Jones, the only one of the three contacted, the Pekin men were invited to participate in the march by the National Council of Churches, thru the Commission of Religion and Race.
THE MARCH will begin immediately following a worship service in Selma Sunday morning. The first “leggers” will be replaced after 14 miles by others and they will return Sunday night.
The Rev. Jones said, “We have witnessed discrimination against the American Negro and considered him in second class citizenship, not by choice or creed, but by color alone.”
He said, “. . . As a Christian and as a minister of the Gospel, I feel I owe an active expression of concern, but have thus far done little.
“THEREFORE, I HAVE answered this call for the march which was given the sanction of the government in hope that it will alleviate discrimination practices,” the Rev. Jones stated.
He also said he hoped “the march will be another peaceful expression of Christians for our brothers against discrimination.”
ACCORDING TO NEWS sources this morning, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York said he was sending a cousin as a personal representative to participate in the march and U.S. (sic U.N.) Undersecretary Ralph J. Bunche is expected to be in Selma to take part, as is Negro comedian Dick Gregory.
The march will start at Browns Chapel A.M.E. church, civil rights headquarters in Selma, and will end at the state capitol at Montgomery.
Altho the size of the crowd will vary from day to day, march leaders hope to have more than 10,000 persons present when the march ends at the capitol.
Portrait of the Rev. Lewis Edward Andrew (1921-2011) from the front page of the 20 March 1965 Pekin Daily Times.
Portrait of the Rev. David Bebb Jones from the front page of the 20 March 1965 Pekin Daily Times.
Portrait of the Rev. Larry Eugene Conrad from the front page of the 20 March 1965 Pekin Daily Times.
The following day, the 22 March 1965 Pekin Daily Times ran this short article on the front page:
3 Pekin Area Ministers In First Part Of March; On Way Home Now
Three ministers from the Pekin area who left Saturday to join the “Freedom March” from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., marched the first “leg” of the 50-mile walk and are now enroute to their homes.
The Rev. David Jones, of the Marquette Heights United Presbyterian church, in talking with his wife by phone Sunday, said they had been near the front of the group at the worship service at a Selma church and had heard the speakers very well prior to leaving for the first eight miles.
Accompanying the Rev. Jones were the Rev. Lewis E. Andrew, First United Presbyterian Church of Pekin and the Rev. Larry Conrad, First Methodist church of Pekin.
No incidents were reported by the men.
After the ministers’ safe return to their families and churches, the Pekin Daily Times on 23 March 1965 ran a story about the ministers’ experiences in Selma, written by Daily Times reporter Helen Parmley and headlined, “3 Ministers Tell of Ala. March, Tension In State.” That article is reproduced in full here:
A 72-hour trip which included an 8-mile walk with the “March For Freedom” in Selma, Ala., ended today when three road-weary Pekin area ministers returned to their homes early this morning.
THE REV. Lewis E. Andrew, First United Presbyterian Church of Pekin, the Rev. Larry Conrad, First Methodist church of Pekin, and the Rev. David B. Jones, First United Presbyterian church of Marquette Heights, said that the “March” is “no carefree, joyous vacation,” but that the “attitude of the Negroes who live in this hell is seemingly unafraid; one rather of determination that this must change and that now is the time.”
These three ministers left their families in Pekin and Marquette Heights at 2 a.m. Saturday, drove 22 hours to Selma, Ala., participated in the Sunday morning worship with the freedom marchers, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and then walked the 8-mile first stage of the 50-mile march for the cause of freedom to be allowed to vote.
The march, which continued today, will end at the Alabama capitol, Montgomery.
REV. JONES said that although everything was quiet “kind of subdued,” the tension could be felt throughout the entire state. He said that the very presence of the Federal police, the desolate roads, the cursing and taunting the marchers received all have rise to the tensity of the situation.
“Our presence made it most difficult, because NOW the main thrust of southern white antagonism is not against the Selma negro, but against the outside leaders & participants,” Rev. Jones explained. “But these are a determined people.”
“Our n—–s were satisfied until you stirred them up,” was the cry heard [from] some southern whites as the marchers walked along the lonely highway.
“THE SOUTHERN Negro had accepted their life as it has been,” Rev. Andrew said, “in order to just stay alive. Now under the support of the Civil Rights movement, they have courage to throw their bodies into the struggle for the right to vote.”
Carrying this line of thought a little further, the Rev. Conrad said, “It isn’t even just the right to vote they are fighting for now – but also the right to, under law, assemble – the right to live.”
EVERYWHERE, the ministers said, they were thanked for coming to join the march. “Your presence has already changed part of the pressure, especially by law enforcement officers, that had been placed on us,” Rev. Conrad related that some of the Negroes said to them.
“We didn’t have a chance until you (civil rights participants) came along,” others said, according to the ministers’ report of the march activities.
THEY TOLD about the hecklers “wherever there was room for people to stand along the roads,” and of the flags. “I only saw one American flag,” Rev. Jones stated, “and that was at the head of the march. But there were many, many Confederate flags, and flags which said, ‘one man, one vote.’”
“OUR PARTICIPATION in the march is difficult to describe,” Rev. Conrad explained. “I couldn’t do it in a 1,000 pages. These people are finally convinced that it (freedom) is now possible for them.”
“We had no idea what we were getting into,” he continued. “I went because of the cause, and I felt now is the time to take a stand. I feel now that this is no longer just an emotional movement, but that it is working itself out in our country.
“The church needs to continue to provide the leadership needed.
“The march was conducted by responsible leadership – it was orderly, calm, but yet fearful.”
Rev. Jones said, “You just can’t imagine the respect they have for Dr. King. We were all packed into the assembly room, waiting – some were singing, others talking – when it was announced that Dr. King was arriving. You could feel the electricity, the respect in the air as everyone became quiet immediately.
“It’s difficult to explain the magnitude of this man with this assembly as he spoke. This will be worked out in the framework of democracy.”
REV. ANDREW said he feels the result of the participation in the march is his “firm conviction that freedom for all men is an eternal vigilance, and that it must demand the best leadership that the church can offer; for Communism is born and bred in troubled waters where responsible leadership is not at the helm. If we who love our democratic way of life lose it, it will be by default.”
“It was in Kentucky that we heard President Johnson’s news conference,” Rev. Jones said, “and we had a sense of being part of history when he said that the eyes of the nation are on Selma, and the eyes of the world are on Alabama.”
As the marchers drew closer to Montgomery, the Pekin Daily Times on 24 March 1965 ran a page 2 follow-up story by Helen Parmley about the three Pekin-area ministers who had participated in the march’s first leg, headlined, “Ministers Describe Types Of Persons Who Joined Selma Freedom March.” Following are extensive excerpts from that article:
Three Pekin area ministers who do not consider themselves as “experts” on the Civil Rights movement in our country, but who traveled to Selma, Ala., this week to join the “Freedom March” for voters rights today began to unravel the details of their participation with thousands of others who seemed to pour out of nowhere.
Joining the first leg march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Sunday, were the Revs. Larry Conrad, First Methodist church, Pekin; Lewis E. Andrew, First United Presbyterian church, Pekin; and David B. Jones, Marquette Heights United Presbyterian church.
THESE MEN left their families in the middle of the night to drive a rough 1,000 miles to their destination, where they were to walk eight miles, to be cursed at, to be taunted, laughed at, scorned. There were times when they were fearful. They had read about peaceful demonstrations that didn’t always remain peaceful. They had read about a minister who died from a beating administered during a demonstration.
Why did they go?
“Before I went, I was convinced that I should – because of the news reports and statements by officials, of government and church, of discriminatory practices that are simply not a part of our democracy,” Rev. Jones said. “And now that I’ve been there I’m even more convinced it was the thing to do.
“I WISH THESE discriminatory practices would end by appeals of reason or conscience. But the history of the struggle for civil rights has pointed out that the only significant progress that has come, has been made by drawing attention to such discrimination by demonstrations and then pressure applied by many groups – only they brought action to alleviate the problem.”
“Reports do not give a clear picture. How these Negroes have survived in the face of oppression, threat, and constant fear of their lives, is beyond our imaginations. And they have deep integrity in spite of it all.”
REV. CONRAD said, “Every great calling in the Bible was a call to service to humanity. A call from the people for help is a call from God.
“Selma was a clear-cut place to witness for Civil Rights in the nation, not just the South. The march said something to the world specifically. There is a positive approach being taken in this responsible leadership that needs to be done everywhere – to get the right of the Negro to his freedom.”
“It is man’s inhumanity against man,” Rev. Andrew said. “The South practices discrimination openly, admittedly, flagrantly.”
What did you find to be the situation, regarding voter registration, when you arrived in Selma?
Rev. Andrew pointed out that in Lowdnes County the population is 81 percent Negro with “only two Negros registered to vote.”
“WE TALKED with one man,” they explained, “a well-educated colored minister, who was number 2,126 to register. He explained, as did others, that the registration office is open two days a month, on work days – making it probable that the man who takes off work to register loses his job. If he does take off from his job, he then stands in line at the registration office, and the numbers are called, but not always numerically. If the registrar with that number is there, and if his number is called, he may then take a test. If the number is called, and he is not there, his number goes to the bottom. A maximum of 100 persons are registered a day. This, however, is an improvement by court order, brought about after demonstrations were started. Before that, only 12 a day were registered, and the first 10 or 12, in line each day were white persons. Those who take the test are then notified if they are acceptable – if not, they may be told they missed a question or that they are morally unacceptable. They are not told what question they missed – questions a lawyer might be able to answer.”
“HOWEVER,” the ministers pointed out, “the Negroes now have the courage to register, the courage to eat in some cafes.”
“They are now not afraid to register, because of the Civil Rights movement, the backing of the people, the assurance of the government, and they believe now that these rights should be theirs, can be theirs, and will be theirs.”
. . . .
“The movement, however, is under the capable, Christian leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. The cause is just, and the approach is right – to work to strengthen, to make real, the basic elements of democracy.”
THE THREE MINISTERS from Pekin were fed, housed, and cared for by the Negro church in Selma. They visited a Negro home which they described as being a very nice, very comfortable, well-kept home built by the government. They also saw the “ghetto” of shacks, unpaved streets, filth in which many of them live.
What of the people who believe the church has no place in this social movement?
“Apart from the Negro community, there is no other group active except the church,” the ministers reported. “Many say this is no place for the church. But those who say church shouldn’t be involved are also persons who say, or believe, there is no need to fight for civil rights.
“Since leaders will come – the vacuum will be filled – the church must re-dedicate itself to active involvement.”
THE THREE MEN did not walk together during the march, but split up to meet more people. They returned to Pekin well-sunned, with one of them, not anticipating the bright, southern sun, sun-burned.
During the eight-mile, first day step of the march, the men said they never saw any violence, retaliation, or verbal combat on the part of the marchers, as they were heckled beyond imagination.
All three spoke in glowing tones about the leader of the movement, Dr. King, who they say has the “grasp” of the fight for freedom, and the complete loyalty of the people. They believe that active support must be given to the non-violent approach to freedom for all people.
STATE POLICE took pictures of the marchers, the ministers said, and these they believed might be developed and turned over to the employers of these marchers, putting their jobs in jeopardy.
This successful third march from Selma to Montgomery is credited with supplying spiritual and political impetus for the passage of federal legislation to protect the voting rights of African-Americans. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was presented to Congress on 17 March 1965, between “Turnaround Tuesday” and the start of the third Selma march. President Johnson signed the bill into law on 6 Aug. 1965.
In our phone conversation on Monday, Rev. Jones said of his experience at the Selma march, “As you can guess, it changed a person’s life – it certainly changed mine.”
In his 2011 reflections and memories he wrote upon the passing of his friend and colleague Rev. Andrew, Jones said, “With family support, we left in the night and drove to Selma, marching the first day. It was dramatic, tense, controversial, and ultimately changed the United States.”
Over the years leading up to the moment he decided to join the march in Selma, Rev. Jones’ already had developed strong and thoughtful convictions regarding social justice and race informed by his Christian faith. While attending McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Jones even met Martin Luther King Jr. when King visited the seminary to preach on race on 20 April 1959. Watching civil rights events unfold in the early months of 1965, Rev. Jones on 15 March 1965 organized his thoughts and prepared a two-page statement on the Civil Rights Movement for the Session of his church in Marquette Heights, concluding “as a Christian, and particularly as minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that I can no longer remain as inactive in this movement as I have been in the past.”
In our phone conversation, Rev. Jones said he was very grateful that the members of his church in Marquette Heights supported his choice to march in Selma. “They were supportive. It was amazing. Some ministers went, and they were ‘crucified’ for it. But that little church was wonderful. They stood with me. It was remarkable,” Jones said.
Jones said he, Andrew, and Conrad returned from Selma with a stronger commitment to work for social justice. One local outcome of the Selma marches was the founding of the Tazewell County Human Relations Committee in the spring of 1965. Jones said he, Andrew, and Conrad visited Tazewell County’s clubs, churches, and volunteer organizations, telling of their experiences and bringing attention to the county’s absence of African-Americans and troubled race history.
Rev. David B. Jones’ sign from the 8 April 1968 Memorial March in Memphis, Tennessee, honoring and mourning the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. four days after his assassination in Memphis. Jones and his colleague the Rev. Lew Andrew both took part in that march. PHOTO COURTESY OF REV. DAVID B. JONES
Jones was elected chairman of the Committee on 15 Jan. 1966, succeeding Father James Shaughnessy (1913-1998), then pastor of Sacre Coeur Catholic Church in Creve Coeur and who was named to head the Peoria Social Action Institute in 1942. At the same time, Pekin attorney Robert Clevenger was elected vice chairman, Mrs. Joan Mensing of Pekin was elected secretary, and Maurice Franz of East Peoria was elected treasurer. In May that year, Peoria Chapter NAACP President John H. Gwynn (1929-1996), whom Jones had met at the Selma march, addressed the Committee and challenged them to issue a statement “that it would welcome Negroes in the county to work and live like any other persons.” The Committee was able to document county housing, fair employment, and public accomodations laws, bringing to light racist “protective covenants” in Tazewell County such as one in a Marquette Heights subdivision that classified non-white persons as “nuisances” and barred them from living there unless they were domestic servants working for a white family.
This article from the 16 Jan. 1966 Peoria Journal Star announced that the Rev. David Bebb Jones, then pastor of the Marquette Heights Presbyterian Church, had been elected chairman of the Tazewell County Human Relations Committee in succession to Father James Shaughnessy (1913-1998), then pastor of Sacre Coeur Catholic Church in Creve Coeur, who was the committee’s first chairman after the group formed in the spring of 1965. CLIPPING SUPPLIED BY REV. DAVID BEBB JONES
Jones said that he, Andrew, and Conrad were inspired by their experience marching in Selma to devote their Christian ministries to working for a more just society, even as their work led them away from Tazewell County. Andrew eventually returned to his native Oklahoma where he passed away in 2011 at the age of 89, just 22 days shy of his 90th birthday. Conrad, who is now 88, moved out to Blaine, Washington, before settling in Texas, while the ministry of Jones, who is now 89, took him to Peoria, then Western Springs, Illinois, and at last in retirement in Downers Grove, Illinois.
A 2018 photograph of Rev. David B. Jones with prominent civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020). Lewis took part in the Selma marches and suffered a skull fracture when he was beaten by Alabama state troopers on “Bloody Sunday,” 7 March 1965. PHOTO COURTESY REV. DAVID B. JONES
In an email to me on 10 Feb. 2024, Jones wrote:
“I left the Marquette Heights United Presbyterian Church in the summer of 1966 and became the associate pastor of the First Federated Church of Peoria for four years, leaving in October 1970 to become the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Western Springs, Ill., for thirty years, retiring on Jan. 1, 2001.
“I have not been in contact with Rev. Larry Conrad through these decades, but did reach out to him in 2011 when Lew died and we talked from his home in Dallas. . . . What I do remember from that 2011 conversation is that Larry remained very involved in racial justice and peace issues through his life.”
My own efforts to contact Rev. Conrad have not been successful. But continuing with Jones’ words in his email, Jones spoke further of Rev. Andrew:
“We were incredibly close in the early years as he was my mentor in ministry, as well as colleague and friend. Our ministries in Pekin and Marquette Heights ended in 1966 as Lew went to the Presbyterian Synod of Illinois as a staff person in Race Relations and I went to Peoria, but we kept in close touch through the years. We worked together on racial justice issues during my time in Peoria. Lew became a school counselor after his church leadership and retired to his home land of Oklahoma in 1978. We were in annual contact through these years and shared commitments to ministry and justice. We last visited in 1998 and I wrote several pieces about our shared lives at that time and at the time of his death.”
The Rev. Lew Andrew and David Bebb Jones in 1998. PHOTO COURTESY OF REV. DAVID BEBB JONES
Reflecting on his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, Jones wrote in his email that “it surely is more modest on reflection than it could have been. Nevertheless, participating in the Selma March was surely the turning point in my ministry and in my convictions for racial justice and the never-ending quest for full freedom for all persons.”
Taking a broad and humble view on whether his, Andrew’s, and Conrad’s civil rights efforts made any difference, Jones told me in our phone conversation, “I don’t know if it did any good” — yet at the time they were moved to do what they could, he said.
Wearing a shirt commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march in which he participated, Rev, David Bebb Jones, formerly of Marquette Heights, shows a figurine of famed Civil Rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated 4 April 1968. PHOTO COURTESY DAVID AND ANN JONES
This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in June 2014, before the launch of this weblog.
Dirksen’s cloture speech: ‘We are confronted with a moral issue’
By Jared Olar
Local History Specialist
In the summer of 2013, America observed the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington of Aug. 28, 1963, which harnessed and channeled the nation’s cultural, religious and political energies in support of the cause of the civil rights of racial minorities. Then in the summer 2014, the nation commemorated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964.
As was explained in this column in August 2013, Pekin’s own Mr. Marigold, Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen, had a central place in the congressional debates and wranglings over the Civil Rights Act, and many historians today, as well as civil rights leaders then, have said that the bill would never have passed without Dirksen’s support.
On June 10, 1964, Dirksen gave a stirring speech on the floor of the Senate calling for his colleagues to vote to end debate on the bill (“cloture”) and proceed to a vote. After the speech, the motion to end debate passed by a vote of 71-29, with the 27 Republican votes cancelling out the votes of the 23 Democrats who opposed the bill. The Senate then approved the bill on June 19 by a vote of 73-27.
Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin visits the Lincoln Memorial.
Here are key excerpts from Dirksen’s June 10 speech:
“Mr. President, it is a year ago this month that the late President Kennedy sent his civil rights bill and message to the Congress. For two years, we had been chiding him about failure to act in this field. At long last, and after many conferences, it became a reality. After nine days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was referred to a subcommittee. There it languished and the administration leadership finally decided to await the House bill. . . .
“It is now 4 months since it passed the House. It is 3½ months since it came to the Senate calendar. Three months have gone by since the motion to consider was made. We have acted on one intervening motion to send the bill back to the Judiciary Committee and a vote on the jury trial amendment. That has been the extent of our action.
“Sharp opinions have developed. Incredible allegations have been made. Extreme views have been asserted. The mail volume has been heavy. The bill has provoked many long-distance telephone calls, many of them late at night or in the small hours of the morning. There has been unrestrained criticism about motives. Thousands of people have come to the Capitol to urge immediate action on an unchanged House bill. For myself, I have had but one purpose and that was the enactment of a good, workable, equitable, practical bill having due regard for the progress made in the civil rights field at the state and local level.
“I am no Johnnie-come-lately in this field. Thirty years ago, in the House of Representatives, I voted on anti-poll tax and anti- lynching measures. Since then, I have sponsored or co-sponsored scores of bills dealing with civil rights. . . .
“Today the Senate is stalemated in its efforts to enact a civil rights bill . . . . There are many reasons why cloture should be invoked and a good civil rights measure enacted. First. It is said that on the night he died, Victor Hugo wrote in his diary, substantially this sentiment: ‘Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.’ The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing in government, in education, and in employment. It will not be stayed or denied. It is here. . . .
“There is another reason – our covenant with the people. For many years, each political party has given major consideration to a civil rights plank in its platform. Go back and reexamine our pledges to the country as we sought the suffrage of the people and for a grant of authority to manage and direct their affairs. Were these pledges so much campaign stuff or did we mean it? Were these promises on civil rights but idle words for vote-getting purposes or were they a covenant meant to be kept? If all this was mere pretense, let us confess the sin of hypocrisy now and vow not to delude the people again.
“To you, my Republican colleagues, let me refresh you on the words of a great American. His name is Herbert Hoover. In his day he was reviled and maligned. He was castigated and calumniated. But today his views and his judgment stand vindicated at the bar of history. In 1952 he received a volcanic welcome as he appeared before our national convention in Chicago. On that occasion he commented on the Whig Party, predecessor of the Republican Party, and said: ‘The Whig party temporized, compromised upon the issue of freedom for the Negro. That party disappeared. It deserved to disappear. Shall the Republican party receive or deserve any better fate if it compromises upon the issue of freedom for all men?’
“To those who have charged me with doing a disservice to my party because of my interest in the enactment of a good civil rights bill – and there have been a good many who have made that charge – I can only say that our party found its faith in the Declaration of Independence in which a great Democrat, Jefferson by name, wrote the flaming words: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’ That has been the living faith of our party. Do we forsake this article of faith, now that equality’s time has come or do we stand up for it and ensure the survival of our party and its ultimate victory? There is no substitute for a basic and righteous idea. . . .
“There is another reason why we dare not temporize with the issue which is before us. It is essentially moral in character. It must be resolved. It will not go away. Its time has come. Nor is it the first time in our history that an issue with moral connotations and implications has swept away the resistance, the fulminations, the legalistic speeches, the ardent but dubious arguments, the lamentations and the thought patterns of an earlier generation and pushed forward to fruition. . . .
“Pending before us is another moral issue. Basically it deals with equality of opportunity in exercising the franchise, in securing an education, in making a livelihood, in enjoying the mantle of protection of the law. It has been a long, hard furrow and each generation must plow its share. Progress was made in 1957 and 1960. But the furrow does not end there. . . .
“There is no substitute for a basic ideal. We have a firm duty to use the instrument at hand; namely, the cloture rule, to bring about the enactment of a good civil rights bill. I appeal to all senators. We are confronted with a moral issue. Today let us not be found wanting in whatever it takes by way of moral and spiritual substance to face up to the issue and to vote cloture.”
This week we reach the point in the history of the Pekin Public Library when Pekin was visited by a sitting U.S. president for the second time in just two years.
As we recalled last month, it was on Friday, June 15, 1973, that Pekin was visited by President Richard Nixon, who came to unveil and dedicate the cornerstone of the new library and Dirksen Congressional Center. Nixon came to honor the memory of an old friend and fellow Republican, U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin, whose papers were to be archived and made available for study at the new Dirksen Center.
Nixon had come to Pekin in 1973 at the invitation of Dirksen’s widow Louella. After Nixon’s return to Washington, D.C., however, his presidency foundered due to the Watergate scandal. Facing impeachment and the probability that he would be removed from office by the Congress, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974, whereupon Vice President Gerald R. Ford became president.
The following summer, Mrs. Louella Dirksen invited President Ford to visit Pekin to dedicate the new Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Research Center, along with the new library building in which the Dirksen Center was housed.
The date for the dedication ceremony was set for Tuesday, Aug. 19, 1975 – not coincidentally, that was 73 years to the day since the cornerstone of the 1902 Pekin Carnegie library was dedicated and laid.
When President Gerald R. Ford approached the podium for his address at the dedication of the Pekin Public Library and Dirksen Congressional Research Center on Aug. 19, 1975, an unidentified teenage girl (shown applauding at the upper left corner) waited for the applause to die down and then shouted, “Atta Boy, Jerry!” The president and the crowd then erupted in laughter.
Just as had happened during Nixon’s visit two years earlier, the area adjacent to the library and Dirksen Center was filled with several thousand spectators and special guests. In addition to President Ford and the First Lady, the guests of honor included Sen. Dirksen’s widow Louella and their daughter Joy, son-in-law Sen. Howard Baker, and grandchildren Darek and Cynthia Baker.
Sen. Baker himself arrived in Pekin on Monday evening, Aug. 18, so he could personally crown the 1975 Miss Marigold Queen Karen Geier at the 3rd Annual Pekin Marigold Festival. Sen. Baker also introduced President Ford prior to his speech on Tuesday, Aug. 19.
President Gerald R. Ford addresses a crowd outside the Pekin Public Library and Everett M. Dirksen Congressional Research Center during a speech dedicating the new facility on Aug. 19, 1975, exactly 73 years after the cornerstone of Pekin’s Carnegie library had been dedicated and laid.
Much of President Ford’s dedicatory speech was a recollection of the years that Ford spent in Congress when Dirksen was the Senate Minority Leader. “I learned a lot from Ev, and it is only fitting that others also should learn from him.”
Ford also recalled a comment that Dirksen wrote in 1968 in the days after Sen. Robert Kennedy was assassinated:
“Senator Dirksen said, ‘The time has come to rethink our history. It should have emphasis in every school, church and forum in the land. The legacy which is ours came from those who were here before us. Into this land they built their skills and talents, their hopes and dreams, their tears and sacrifices.
“‘Today we are the trustees of America. Upon us is a two-fold duty. The one is to those who came before us and gave us this land for our inheritance. The other is to those who shall come after us.
“‘Perhaps three words can state the whole case – dedication, discipline and duty.’
“I know that those words, spoken as only Ev Dirksen could say them, are somewhere in this edifice, reminding Americans of their continued need for dedication, discipline and duty. Yes, Louella, his words still echo.”
After his speech, the president and his entourage attended a brief reception in the foyer of the Pekin Public Library, and toured the interior of the Dirksen Center and library.
Even after Ford’s visit, it would still be a few months before the cornerstone of the new library and Dirksen Center – which had been unveiled and dedicated by President Nixon in 1973 – would be formally laid, signifying the completion of the new library facility. We will tell that story next week.
As photographers in the presidential press pool snap pictures, President Gerald R. Ford speaks with John B. Hackler, architect of the new Pekin Public Library and Dirksen Congressional Research Center facility, during a tour of the facility after Ford’s speech dedicating the library and Dirksen Center on Aug. 19, 1975.This ticket to President Gerald R. Ford’s speech in Pekin in 1975 belonged to the late Nelson Eddings, a library board member and an English teacher at Pekin Community High School.
As construction proceeded in 1973 on the new Pekin Public Library and Dirksen Congressional Leadership Research Center, library and city officials paused for a moment on May 31 of that year to look back at the library’s and city’s past by opening the Pekin Carnegie library’s 1902 time capsule, which had been secured in a hollowed-out niche in the library’s cornerstone.
The next step, naturally, was to have a formal ceremony dedicating the new facility’s cornerstone. Because the facility was to house a research center dedicated to the late Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin, who was the leader of the U.S. Senate’s Republicans as Senate Minority Leader, Dirksen’s widow Louella extended an invitation to the Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon to come to Pekin and conduct the cornerstone unveiling and dedication that summer.
The president and first lady graciously accepted the invitation. Given their personal and political ties to the late Sen. Dirksen and his family – which included the Dirksens’ son-in-law, Republican Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee – the Nixons were pleased to honor the memory of their friend and ally in his hometown.
But this was also the time when the Watergate scandal had begun to heat up, with the hearings of the U.S. Senate’s Watergate investigation committee being televised from May 17 to Aug. 7. The Nixons must have welcomed the opportunity to leave Washington, D.C., for a few days during those months.
The community of Pekin, for its part, was generally very happy to welcome the president for the dedication ceremony, for it is not every day that a sitting U.S. president comes to visit a small city like Pekin. A very great deal of work had to be done in a relatively short period of time to prepare for the visit, including the construction of bleachers and a speaker’s platform along Broadway adjacent to the library, the placement of heavy metal barrels for security along the route that the president’s motorcade would travel, the coordination of security details and local law enforcement (which included the placing of armed guards atop nearby buildings, including the Carnegie library itself), and the printing and distribution of invitations and tickets to the event.
This Pekin Daily Times print from the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room collection shows U.S. President Richard Nixon and Mrs. Louella Dirksen, widow of Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin, unveiling of the cornerstone of the new library and Dirksen Center facility on Friday, June 15, 1973.
The coming of Mr. and Mrs. Nixon to Pekin was not confirmed until June 11, 1973, as announced by a banner front page headline in the Pekin Daily Times that day – “It’s Official! Nixon Coming to Pekin!” Word had already begun to leak out of the possibility of the president’s visit in the week prior, when it was noticed that the Secret Service and White House officials were in town.
Just four days after the visit was confirmed, on Friday, June 15, 1973, the president and first lady flew into the Greater Peoria Airport near Bartonville, landing at about 11 a.m. and arriving in time for the ceremonies in Pekin at about 11:30. The event attracted a jubilant crowd of about 10,000 to the immediate area next to and near the library, while many other people lined streets and roads along the route of the presidential motorcade.
This Pekin Daily Times print from the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room collection shows U.S. President Richard Nixon addressing a vast crowd in Pekin during ceremonies dedicating the cornerstone of the new Pekin library and Dirksen Center on Friday, June 15, 1973.
Numerous national, state, and local public officials attended the event, including Illinois Gov. Dan Walker, a Democrat. Both the Republic president and the Democrat governor were to see their careers brought down by scandal – and both would later experience somewhat of a rehabilitation of their reputations in certain circles.
The event culminated in a speech by the president and the unveiling and dedication of the cornerstone by President Nixon and Mrs. Louella Dirksen.
Afterwards, the cornerstone was set aside in a safe place so it could be brought out again for a cornerstone-laying ceremony when the library and Dirksen Center was complete. Meanwhile the president and first lady returned to face the political repercussions of the Watergate coverup that were looming ever larger day by day.
Next time we will tell of the founding of the Friends of the Pekin Public Library, and recall the 1974 auction of the furnishings of the Pekin Carnegie library.
U.S. Army Sgt. Stan Newell, a former Vietnam War POW, leads the assembled crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance during the visit of U.S. President Richard Nixon to Pekin on Friday, June 15, 1973. Nixon came to Pekin on the invitation of Mrs. Louella Dirksen, widow of U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin, so he could unveil and dedicate the cornerstone of the new Pekin library and Dirksen Congressional Research Center.A platform and bleachers were erected in the area of Broadway and Sabella streets adjacent to the Pekin Public Library in the days prior to the visit of U.S. President Richard Nixon on Friday, June 15, 1973.This Pekin Daily Times print from the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room collection shows a guard atop the Pekin Carnegie library during the visit of U.S. President Richard Nixon to Pekin to dedicate the cornerstone of the new library and Dirksen Center on Friday, June 15, 1973. It’s not every day that a sitting U.S. president visits Pekin, and when he does it is bound to be front page news. As it was an afternoon paper for most of its history, the Pekin Daily Times was able to get its story on Nixon’s visit into print the same day, before any other area newspaper.
In the previous installment of our ongoing series on the history of the Pekin Public Library, we recalled how Pekin’s “Baby Boom” population increase and the steady growth of the library’s collection led to the decision in the late 1950s to begin planning on a new, larger library building.
It was the dream of Pekin Mayor J. Norman Shade that the new building would house both the Pekin Public Library and a Dirksen Congressional Center that would serve as an archive for the papers of U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin and a research center for students of the history and workings of the U.S. Congress.
In January of 1964, incorporation papers for the Dirksen Center were filed with the Illinois Secretary of State by Mayor J. Norman Shade, Walter V. McAdoo, and Harold E. Rainville. From that point, preparations for a new library really began to ramp up. The next visible development in that planning process came in December of 1965, when the Pekin library board acquired two more residential properties behind the library.
Around that same period of time, there came another development that was very important to the Pekin Public Library and many other Central Illinois libraries. On Jan. 7, 1966, Pekin Library Board Chairman John E. Velde Jr. was elected first president of the new Illinois Valley Library System, which then included 17 public libraries in Tazewell, Peoria, and Woodford counties.
It was in Dec. 1965 that the Pekin Public Library joined the Illinois Valley Library System, which was a predecessor of the present Alliance Library System to which Pekin’s library now belongs. Somewhat later than his election as IVLS president, Velde would be named to President Richard Nixon’s new National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences.
The next major landmark in Pekin Public Library history occurred about a year later. On Dec. 31, 1966, it was announced that Pekin’s Carnegie library would be razed and replaced by a larger, modern structure. Charles M. Mohrhardt and Ralph A. Ulveling, head of the Detroit, Mich., library system, were invited by the library board to share their insight and expertise in helping to plan the new structure.
After about two years of the library board’s planning work, on Nov. 1, 1968, Pekin Public Library director John Wicks announced that the architectural firm of John B. Hackler and Co. of Peoria was awarded the contract to design for the new library and Dirksen Congressional Center, projected to cost $750,000.
In the midst of the preparations for a new library, in February of 1971 the library board appointed Mrs. Paula Weiss of Columbia, Mo., as head of Pekin Public Library’s Children’s Department and Cataloging Department. Weiss would eventually become the Pekin library director.
Nearly six years after the announcement that the Pekin Carnegie library would be replaced by a new and larger structure, the design concept of John B. Hackler and Co. was unveiled. On Oct. 15, 1971, Pekin Public Library director Richard N. Peck revealed the plans for the new library and Dirksen Center, a 37,000-square-foot facility (of which 15,500 square feet would be occupied by the Dirksen Center) to be built at a projected cost of $1,450,000. The facility would be a two-storey structure and would include a hall for public assemblies and events as well as an exhibition hall.
This 1971 architect’s drawing shows the layout of the main floor of the planned facility that would house the Pekin Public Library and Everett M. Dirksen Congressional Research Center, as designed by Peoria architects John B. Hackler and Co. The facility was built and modeled according to this plan.
The structure’s planned dimensions would later be trimmed to 32,500 square feet, of which 11,000 square feet would belong to the Dirksen Center and 19,000 square feet would house the Pekin Public Library facilities.
The next stage of the planning process arrived on June 20, 1972, when the Pekin library board accepted the low bid of Del Construction Co. of Washington, Ill., to build the new library and Dirksen Center for $1,111,780. That cost later was adjusted in Jan. 1973 with the addition of $51,842 in needed sewer system, pumping, and sidewalk work, because the Hackler design called for a sunken structure.
And with that, construction of the new library and Dirksen Center got under way.
This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in August 2013, before the launch of this weblog.
Dirksen’s ‘Long, Hard Furrow’
By Jared Olar
Library Assistant
During African-American History Month, it is an appropriate time to recall the crucial role that Pekin’s own Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen played in the passage of the landmark Civil Rights of Act of 1964.
As a matter of fact, were it not for Dirksen, the efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would have foundered. Dirksen’s place in the story is spotlighted by Frank H. Mackaman of the Dirksen Congressional Center, in his 2006 book, “The Long, Hard Furrow – Everett Dirksen’s Part in the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” a copy of which is in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room collection.
The story Mackaman tells takes the reader behind the scenes in Washington, D.C., uncovering, or at times speculating about, the political stratagems and deal-making that brought about the bill’s passage. The bill was introduced by the administration of President John F. Kennedy on June 19, 1963, when the Kennedy administration sent the bill to the House of Representatives. Dubbed HR 7152, the bill had 11 sections or “titles,” conventionally designed by Roman numerals.
Even though the Democratic Party controlled the White House as well as both houses of Congress, the bill encountered opposition in Congress from segregationist, racist Democrats from the South. In addition, although the Republican Party had long supported civil rights for blacks in the face of Democrat opposition, many Republicans nevertheless objected to certain provisions of the bill on constitutional grounds.
Dirksen, who was the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate, himself was favorable to the bill in general. He had a solid record of support for civil rights legislation, but he expressed principled objections to some of the wording in Title II, on “Public Accommodations,” which prohibited places that are open to the general public from discriminating against anyone on the basis of race.
Mackaman explains Dirksen’s initial position on Title II in this way (p.22):
“Traditional Republican civil rights supporters argued that the provision should rest on the 14th amendment’s guarantee that blacks should not be denied equal protection of the laws by any state, rather than on Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce as the administration bill proposed. In June 1963, Dirksen sided with those who would support only a voluntary public accommodations provision. He opposed Title II.”
Because the Democrats were sharply divided on civil rights, the Kennedy administration and the Democratic Congressional leadership understood that the Civil Rights Act could not pass without solid bipartisan support. That meant the Democrats needed Republican support. The Republicans also were divided on this issue, but not as sharply as the Democrats. Because Dirksen was then the Senate minority leader, the White House and Congressional Democrats knew they needed Dirksen on their side.
The Washington Press corps also knew Dirksen’s support for the bill was crucial. As Mackaman says (p.26), “Doris Fleeson, writing for the [Washington] Evening Star in mid-July [1963], for example, opened her story on civil rights with these words: ‘The man to watch during Washington’s bruising civil rights battle is not President Kennedy, the Attorney General or the Negro leaders but effusive, ever-loving Dirksen.”
To ensure Dirksen’s support, the White House and Congressional Democrats pursued a two-pronged approach, using what they called an “Inside Strategy” and an “Outside Strategy.” The “Inside Strategy” consisted of efforts from Sen. Hubert Humphrey and other Democrats to woo Dirksen, while the “Outside Strategy” was made up of letter writing, advocacy from church leaders, marches and street protests and printed newspaper editorials. Mackaman observes that it’s not clear how effective either strategy was, and in particular Dirksen did not like pressure tactics of the sort deployed in the “Outside Strategy.”
In any case, at the time of Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, the bill remained deadlocked. The day before Kennedy’s assassination, Dirksen had criticized Kennedy for inaction on the bill, and Mackaman concurs with Dirksen’s criticism, writing, “. . . Kennedy had been a reluctant warrior in the battle for civil rights . . . he chose not to make it a priority” (p.33). Kennedy’s focus was on foreign policy.
Things changed under President Lyndon Johnson, and the early months of 1964 saw a renewed bipartisan push to overcome the issues that had kept the bill bogged down in Congress. After a good deal of debate and negotiation, passages of the bill were amended to Dirksen’s satisfaction, and he threw his unreserved support behind it.
“[W]e dare not temporize with the issue which is before us,” Dirksen said in his speech calling for the Senate to end debate (“cloture”) and proceed to a vote. “It is essentially moral in character. It must be resolved. It will not go away.” Speaking of the struggle against racial discrimination, Dirksen said, “It has been a long, hard furrow and each generation must plow its share . . . The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied. It is here!”
Wholly apart from the momentous issue before the Senate, the vote for cloture was itself historic. As Mackaman writes, “Never in history has the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a filibuster on a civil rights bill. And only once in the thirty-seven years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture for any measure.” Yet that is exactly what the Senate did. On June 10, 1964, the motion to end debate passed by a vote of 71-29, with 44 Democrats and 27 Republicans voting for cloture and 23 Democrats (20 of them from the South) and only six Republicans opposed.
Only minutes after the vote, Washington NAACP chief Clarence Mitchell told reporters, “It’s simply fantastic. [Dirksen] worked steadily and effectively for the bill. No one deserves more credit from our point of view.” Mitchell’s sentiments were echoed by many other members of the civil rights coalition.
The bill was then formally approved by the Senate on June 19, by a vote of 73-27. About two weeks later, the House of Representatives approved the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and President Johnson signed it into law on July 2.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Pekin visits the Lincoln Memorial.
This is an updated reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in January 2014 before the launch of this weblog.
Do you know the way to Bean Town?
By Jared Olar
Library assistant
The city of Pekin has seen vast changes since its birth as a pioneer town in 1830 and its incorporation as a city in 1849. Old maps and atlases show the city’s growth, as it spread out to the east, south and north from the original town (now the old downtown area of Pekin) and new sections and streets were laid out.
The maps give the names of the new subdivisions – Cincinnati Addition, Broadway Addition, Colts Addition, Leonard Addition, Edds Addition, Casey’s Addition, etc. However, there is one part of Pekin that had a unique name which does not appear on the old maps, because it wasn’t an “official” name.
That section was popularly known as “Bean Town.” It was the old northeast quarter of Pekin, bounded on the south by Broadway and on the north by Willow, with George Street (today called Eighth Street) as its western boundary. In the days when “Bean Town” got its name, the neighborhoods north of Willow and east of 14th Street did not yet exist.
Shown is a detail from the map of Pekin found in the 1873 “Atlas Map of Tazewell County.” The northeast quarter of Pekin, indicated by the box, and areas adjacent to it were heavily settled by German immigrants beginning about the mid-1800s. Because the Germans living there usually maintained gardens in which they grew beans, the quarter came to be known as “Bean Town” (“Bohnen Fertel”).
Why was Pekin’s old northeast quarter called “Bean Town”? It got its name as a result of the very great numbers of German immigrants who arrived in Pekin during the middle and latter half of the 1800s. “Bean Town” was Pekin’s German quarter. It was in that quarter, at 1100 Hamilton St., where the parents of U.S Senator Everett M. Dirksen lived, and where Dirsken and his twin brother Thomas lived as children.
“An indication of the heavy immigration could be seen when there was an ice jam in the river at Cairo in January of 1854. It held up 14 steam boats loaded with some 2,000 German immigrants,” says the 1949 Pekin Centenary on page 15.
Continuing, the Centenary says, “The Germans built neat homes, and were enthusiastic gardeners. They located in large numbers in the northeast part of Pekin. Their gardens gave that part of the city a character all its own, and it came to be called ‘Bohnen Fertel’ in German, later called ‘Bean Town’, for the same reason; and with the passage of years ‘Bohnen Fertel’ became corrupted into Bonshe-fiddle.
“Though the gardens are long since gone, Pekinites still refer to ‘bonshe-fiddle’ and ‘bean town’ in speaking of that part of the city.”
As the Centenary says, “Bohnen” is the German word for “beans.” The word “Fertel” is an old variant form of the German word “viertel,” meaning a fourth or a quarter. (“Fertl” also means “quarter” in Yiddish.) Because the German immigrants liked to plant their gardens with beans, the neighborhood came to be called Bean Town.
For a while in the latter 1800s, the majority of Pekin residents were German, and the German language could be heard here almost as commonly as English. With World War I, however, came a reaction against all things German. As a result, the children of German immigrants hastened to assimilate into American culture, and Pekin businesses began to take down their “Wir sprechen hier Deutsch” signs.
The name “Bohnen Fertel” or “Bean Town” has long since fallen into disuse. The only visible trace of that place-name today is in the name of Bean Town Antiques, a former market at the corner of 14th and Catherine streets.
Bean Town Antiques, a structure that formerly was a market at the corner of 14th and Catherine streets, is shown in this Google Street View image from 2011.
This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in August 2014 before the launch of this weblog.
William Gaither, Tazewell County treasurer
By Jared Olar
Library assistant
The Gaither surname occupies a special place in the history of Pekin and Tazewell County, chiefly due to the central role played by Mary Elizabeth Gaither (1852-1945) in the planning and construction of the Pekin Carnegie Library in 1902. She also compiled and wrote the early history of the library up to 1902.
Having devoted much of her years to the public library, Miss Gaither, as she was usually known (never having married), later moved to California, where she lived her remaining years in the home of her older brother Otho, outliving him by a few months and dying in Lindsay, Calif., on Jan. 11, 1945. Her obituary, published on the front page of the Jan. 13, 1945 Pekin Daily Times, surprisingly is silent about her involvement in the library, but offers these remarks on the decades-old ties of Miss Gaither and her family to Pekin:
“The news carries oldtimers down a long memory lane to Civil War days in Pekin. At the turn of the year, word came of the death of Mrs. Margaretha Neef, whose memory also included Civil War and Abraham Lincoln days in Pekin. Still living of that day and almost the same age is Mrs. Anna Schipper, now in Florida for the winter.
“The old Gaither home in Pekin was the house that now is the Congressman Dirksen home. Many remember old Mr. Gaither because of the shawl he wore. Miss Gaither is best remembered here as a music teacher – but that was long, long ago.”
Shown is a drawing of William Gaither’s home on Buena Vista Avenue in Pekin that was published in the 1873 “Atlas Map of Tazewell County.” The house is more usually remembered today as the home of U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen and his wife Louella, but formerly was the residence of Mary E. Gaither who played a chief role in the plans to build the 1902 Pekin Carnegie Library. The house still stands today and is located at 335 Buena Vista Ave.
“Mr. Gaither” was William Gaither, Esq., who held a number of public offices in Tazewell County, including that of county treasurer. His social prominence and political activities earned him a place in the 1873 Atlas Map of Tazewell County, which also includes numerous biographies of the “Old Settlers of Tazewell County.” Gaither’s biography is on page 42 of the atlas, and an engraving of his residence on Buena Vista Street is found on page 124.
William Gaither was born April 8, 1813, in Hagerstown, Maryland, the son of Zachariah Gaither (1782-1834) and Elizabeth Garver (1786-1827). The biography says William became a cabinet-maker’s apprentice at the age of 17. “After completing his apprenticeship, and business not being very brisk in his native state, he was desirous of trying his fortunes in a new country, and with that intention he started westward, and traveled overland to the Ohio river, then by steamer, landing in Pekin, Illinois, in October, 1836. He remained here but a short time, then went to Tremont, which was then the county seat of Tazewell county. He there resumed his trade, which he carried on for a number of years,” the biography says.
In 1844, he married Ann Eliza Coleman Garrett, and together they had seven children, three of whom died in childhood – William, Otho, Martha, Mary, Charles, Samuel and Lincoln. He and his family moved back to Pekin in 1863.
The biography continues, “In the year 1850 he was lured from the quiet walks of life, and was in the fall of that year elected sheriff of Tazewell county, as the candidate of the Whig party. Under the then existing constitution of the state, a sheriff was not eligible for reelection for the succeeding term. After the expiration of his term of office, Mr. Gaither turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and to his trade, which claimed his attention for several years. In 1862 he was appointed by Sheriff Williamson, his deputy. During that year he did most of the business of the office. In the fall of 1862, Mr. Gaither was nominated by the Republican party, for sheriff, but of course was defeated, as the Democrats at that time were largely in the ascendancy in Tazewell county.”
The biography goes on to tell of Gaither’s subsequent involvement in public affairs: appointed by President Lincoln a federal inspector of revenue for the Eighth District (encompassing Tazewell County), removed from that office by President Johnson over policy differences, appointed assistant county treasurer and collector in the fall of 1867, appointed county treasurer in September 1869 to fill the vacancy created by the death of County Treasurer Barber, then elected county treasurer in November 1869.
At the time of the publication of the 1873 Atlas Map, Gaither was serving a second elected term as treasurer. He died in Pekin on Jan. 11, 1892 – coincidentally the same day and month that his daughter Mary died in 1945. His widow Ann Eliza died in 1912.
Among the records and mementos preserved in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room archives is a collection of papers and letters of William Gaither, many of them associated with his activities as treasurer and collector for the county. The collection, formerly in the possession of Miss Gaither, was donated to the library in 1970 by Miss Gaither’s niece (Otho’s daughter), Nellie Gaither Urling-Smith.
From the History Room 