Freedom Trails was borne out of the State’s request for proposals for new heritage tourism destination projects. From this proposal process in Dec. of 2000, T&L was chosen along with other projects such as Rt. 66 and the National Road. T&L is couched around the Underground Railroad movement, civil war involvement, migration, significant people, places, events and things relevant to African American heritage or the African American experience. We have been involved in cultural advocacy for years. Formally providing focus groups and input for an Empowerment Zone proposal that led to East St. Louis getting an Enterprise Community designation in 1994. We currently manage an office…headquartered in East St. Louis. Project director, Anne Walker has been mentored by Katherine Dunham since 1969. As a result of this experience, Anne has been passionate about cultural heritage, the Arts and now tourism as a vehicle to community and economic empowerment.

Organizational Capability: The Arts, Humanities and Tourism Dev. Commission is structured to consist of seven professionals that formed the steering committee for Freedom Trails. Our initial proposal consisted of focusing on 17 Counties. In each County there are representatives that jointly form an action committee. The steering committee has become the Executive committee that meets quarterly, or as often as necessary and the action committee meets biannually. The project is staffed with a director, an Adm. Assistant, 4 contractual consultants and volunteers. The project has a 6-year designation, a strategic plan, a business plan and the goal to have statewide sites and activities.

Evidence of Community Support: Tourism offices, schools, churches, museums, historical and preservation societies are helping us to put together Illinois’ cultural inventory. We’ve had positive responses from all over the state. The media has helped tremendously and they are beginning to understand that African American History extends beyond African Americans and the month of February. Our meetings have been well attended and our directions are set.
Our Executive Committee, the Arts Humanities and Tourism Development Commission, consists of a judge, a civic engineer, artists, business representatives and an accountant/operations manager. Our statewide Action Committee consists of historians, librarians, site owners & operators, tourist organizations and civic organizations and individuals. Our consultants include amateur and professional historians, genealogists, a tour developer, marketing experts and authors.

Community Involvement: In 1994, we began with the Enterprise Communities and Empowerment Zones Strategic plan for arts, humanities and tourism. Groups have been meeting to keep our goals alive and what was seeded at home, veined into other communities. The enthusiasm Freedom Trails has raised is profound according to DCEO. We expect to have individual, county and organizational memberships while recruiting volunteers. We work with college classes, rural cities such as Tamaroa and highly urbanized areas such as Springfield and Chicago. Our project has no color lines. All Americans can benefit from revisiting the other times in American History (before 9/11) when we came together in the name of liberty.

Forging New Partnerships: In support of the project and tourism,

Arts
Businesses
Humanities/Education
Transportation
Preservation

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