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Letters

Dear Illinois Heritage,

I was incredibly impressed with Richard E. Hart's feature "Honest Abe and the African Americans: How blacks in early Springfield influenced Lincoln's view on race and society" [see volume 7, No. 1, Jan-Feb, 2004 issue], especially to his reference to the August 1, 1859, address of John W. Menard.

For Black History Month, through Illinois State Historian Tom Schwartz's good offices, the state displayed in Springfield Menard's "An Address to the Free Colored People of Illinois," from the holdings of the Illinois State Historical Library.

On February 22, the Pierre Menard site in Randolph County hosted a poetry reading. Featured work was John Willis Menard's 1879 book, Lays in Summer Lands, republished in 2002 by the University of Tampa Press.

On February 10th in College Park, Maryland, I gave a talk on "Illinois, The Congressional Globe, and Congressional Claimant John Willis Menard: A February 27, 1869, Footnote in American History." One can view the text on Menard's remarks to the House of Representatives from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html and then clicking on page 1684 of The Congressional Globe (40th Congress, 3rd session). On February 25th in the U.S. Capitol the Illinois State Society of Washington sponsored a reception for the three co-editors of the University of Tampa re-publication, Larry Rivers, Richard Mathews, and Canter Brown, Jr.

Rod Ross
Washington, DC

On the cover

Nathan Hughes, shown here with his wife, Jane Allen, in 1883, was born a slave on a Virginia plantation in 1824. After escaping to the North via the Underground Railroad, he settled near Yorkville, Illinois. In April 1864, he enlisted in the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment at Chicago. He served throughout the rest of the Civil War and was badly wounded at the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia, in June 1864. After the war, he returned to the Oswego-Yorkville area where he farmed and became the only black member of the Kendall County Grand Army of the Republic. Nathan Hughes is buried along with four other known African-American veterans of the Civil War, in the Oswego Township Cemetery. Photo courtesy the Oswego Historical Society, from the exhibit Oswego Goes to War: Defending the Nation During the Civil War. For more information, visit the Little White School Museum on line at LWSMuseum@yahoo.com

True Learning, True Teaching

The Illinois Humanities Council will host its annual "True Learning, True Teaching" seminars this summer at Starved Rock State Park and the Conference Center at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein. Teachers dedicated to the profession, to their students, and to life-long learning are encouraged to apply. The IHC especially encourages applications from teachers who have recently joined the profession. Applicants must currently be full-time teachers in Illinois (k-12) schools. IHC seminars are dedicated to learning for the sake of learning; no college or university credit is given. However, the IHC is an approved ISBE provider and all IHC seminars qualify for CEUs. Teachers attending summer seminars will be housed in private rooms or cabins. Participants dine together and meet in a seminar room. All seminars are free. IHC pays for food, lodging, and seminar materials but not transportation to the seminar location.

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Sessions topics and locations are as follows:
Starved Rock State Park: June 20-25
Mother Earth?Virgin Land?: Women, Nature, and Writing.

Diana Swanson, Department of Women's Studies, Northern Illinois University

Caught in the Crucible: America in the Great Depression
Judith Everson, Department of Literature, University of Illinois at Springfield

The Conference Center at The University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein: July 11-16

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Cosmology and Humanity: How Astronomical Theories Have Shaped Views of Human Nature
Dennis Temple, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Roosevelt University.

Starved Rock State Park: July 25-30
Changing Places: Literature and Globalization
Zohreh Sullivan, Department of Literature, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

"I Will Be Heard!": The Anti-Slavery Movement in the US and the Midwest
Stacey Robertson, Department of History, Bradley University.

K-12 teachers applying for a 2004 teacher seminar must complete and return a Summer Seminar application form by May 1. Please return your application to the Illinois Humanities Council, 203 North Wabash Avenue, Suite 2020, Chicago, IL 60601-2417. Notification of acceptance occurs in early June. If you have additional questions call Clark Halker or Carole Cosimano at the IHC at 312.422.5580.

4 | Illinois Heritage


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