“By any means necessary” was no overstatement when it came to the life-or-death flight to freedom through Illinois ... Railroad. John and Eliza Little walked hundreds of miles from Cairo ...

Railroad history in Illinois began in Meredosia in 1838. The Northern Cross was the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains and North of the Ohio River to use a steam locomotive.

And many, in due course, became history makers in their own right. With more than 50 sites on our map of Illinois’ Underground Railroad, it would be quite challenging to make the 1,100-mile ...

The Illinois Underground Railroad Task Force on Tuesday presented its ongoing findings on the important role Illinois played in the history of helping slaves reach freedom. The Underground ...

CAIRO, Ill. (WSIL) -- It was a hot summer night in 1971 when Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. delivered remarks to a large audience at Ward Chapel A.M.E. Church in Cairo. High school sophomore Ronnie Woods ...

(The Center Square) – An Illinois task force investigating the state’s ties with the Underground Railroad has presented ... education about our country’s history of racism, Illinois remains ...

ABOVE: An 1870 ad for the Illinois Central Railway touted a trip from Chicago to Cairo — ‘without change of Cars.’ BELOW: That railroad arose out of a pair of land-grant bills introduced two ...

Cairo is located at the tip of Southern Illinois at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Founded in 1818, it became the terminus for the Illinois Central Railroad by 1855.