UIS Team Writing Race Riot Exhibit

A University of Illinois Springfield team is developing the historical content for a permanent exhibit about the 1908 Springfield race riot that will be located inside the new Springfield-Sangamon County Transportation HUB.

The Illinois State Museum Society awarded the contract to a team from the UIS Center for Lincoln Studies and History Department. Sangamon County selected the Illinois State Museum, with assistance from the museum society, to lead development of the exhibit.

The museum is working with a community advisory committee, exhibit designer Display Dynamics and the UIS team to develop the exhibit.

UIS is completing the work through its Legacy of Resilience Project, a collaboration between the Center for Lincoln Studies and the History Department. The project examines Springfield’s Black community before, during and after the August 1908 violence.

Jacob K. Friefeld, director of the UIS Center for Lincoln Studies, and Devin Hunter, associate professor of history, are serving as co-project directors. Brian Mitchell, public humanities fellow at the Center for Lincoln Studies and a nationally recognized historian, will write the exhibit. UIS students will also help research and develop its content.

“We are currently engaged in new research on the race riot. This gives the exhibit the potential of bringing a fresh perspective to the topic,” Friefeld said. “We prioritize collaborative and reflective practices that will result in a final product that centers the voices of victims, survivors, resisters and hopefully descendants and descendant communities.”

The exhibit will examine the causes, effects and lasting legacy of the race riot while highlighting the experiences of Springfield’s Black community and the event’s importance in the broader history of civil rights and opposition to lynching.

“The Legacy of Resilience project elevates the African American community in discussions of the race riot,” Mitchell said. “Too often, Black communities are examined through the lens of victimhood. This project views the community through its achievements, industry, genius, strength and resilience.”

The violence began in August 1908 after a white woman falsely accused a Black man of assault. White mobs attacked Black residents and neighborhoods, burned homes and businesses and forced thousands of Black residents to flee. The violence helped inspire the formation of the NAACP the following year.

Research for the Legacy of Resilience Project began in fall 2024. In addition to the HUB exhibit, the project is expected to produce a searchable digital archive, interactive map and other resources exploring Springfield’s Black community during the early 1900s.

The work also provides research opportunities for UIS graduate and undergraduate students. Anna Newby, a recent graduate of the UIS Master of Arts in History program, spent two years working on the project as a graduate research assistant for the Center for Lincoln Studies.

“Difficult histories allow us to learn from the mistakes of our past, in the hope that we can escape the calamities of the present,” Mitchell said.

The Transportation HUB is under construction along Ninth Street in downtown Springfield and is planned to open in fall 2027. It will bring together Amtrak, Sangamon Mass Transit District and Greyhound services and will include a parking garage, public amenities and permanent exhibits highlighting local history.