The Seeking Old Charley project
In 2018, the Lombard Historical Society received a grant to continue researching Old Charley, the freedom seeker who spent time at the Peck home. The research team of Jeanne Schultz Angel, Linda Dixon, Jean Crockett, and Sarah Richardt, has been traveling the state, and searching digitally, to find any information that links known “Charleys” in the state with our Charley. Although a needle in a haystack project, our findings and processes have been important.
The research team focused on written histories from newspapers, books, oral histories, letters, and journals to track down freedom seekers and conductors of African-American descent to bring their stories to light, and then compared and contrast specific aspects of their histories to see if they could be the Charley that the Pecks knew. Our travels took us to Rockford, Princeton, Tampico, Whiteside County, Quincy, Alton, St. Louis, Cairo, Ballwin, MO, Canton, MO, and many other places. Whew!
This is a two-part project. The first part is the paper documenting the findings of the research team.
The second part of the project is a site-specific bibliography that will define a new starting point that will inform other researchers allowing them to jump start their own projects.
It is our hope that this will further the research of the stories of African-Americans. Each location visited was documented with a contact and all of the bibliographical resources found at each location.
Download the Seeking Charlie project report, the full citation list, or a list of travel locations contacted.
This material is based on the work assisted by a grant from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), funded by the Department of Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASALH or the Department of Interior.
