PEKIN, Ill. — On Friday, Tazewell County will celebrate “Juneteenth”, June 19, the day in 1865 when the final group of black slaves in Texas was told they were freed.
The event, hosted by the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, NAACP Peoria Branch, City of Pekin Human Rights Committee, YWCA Pekin’s Coalition for Equality, and Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman, is the third in a series of planned public recognitions for people who helped coordinate the Underground Railroad in Tazewell County.
Several Circleville area Underground Railroad Coordinators, Samuel, Hugh Woodrow, William Woodrow and John Sommers, will be honored.
Samuel and William Woodrow were among the founders of the City of Pekin.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show,” that Nancy Costley, a long-time resident of Pekin, was also notable figure in the end of slavery in America.
“She is recognized as the first slave to be emancipated by Abraham Lincoln,” Ackerman said.
Costley’s son, William Costley, was also one of 11 Tazewell County men that marched into Galveston, Texas on the first “Juneteenth”.
Friday’s celebration at the Woodrow Cemetery in South Pekin begins at 4 p.m.
