Judy Tighe stands in front of the mural Dr. Alonzo H. Kenniebrew on the side of the Lincoln Land Community College building on North Main Street, just off the downtown square. A new mural will be added to downtown’s collection in coming months.
Bridgette Fox/Journal-Courier
Jacksonville Main Street is putting up its 13th mural downtown, this one depicting the city’s ties to the Underground Railroad through historic figure Ben Henderson.
Henderson, a Black man, bought his freedom in 1837 and lived in Jacksonville. He worked as a Teamster and also was a conductor for the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves flee northward to freedom.
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Judy Tighe, executive director of the nonprofit Jacksonville Main Street, said the mural will depict well-known aspects of the city’s historic ties to the Underground Railroad.
“Sites well known in Jacksonville will be featured and then, obviously, parts of the Ben Henderson story,” Tighe said. “And then kind of depicting people coming from the darkness into the light of freedom along the pathway.”
The mural will depict a winding road running through the middle of it to show the journey of the Underground Railroad. It will be one of the biggest murals of the 13 that already exist downtown, Tighe said, noting it will be on the west side of the Rammelkamp Bradney law offices building at 232 W. State St.
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The project has been planned for years, Tighe said. Main Street initially worked with historians Ruth Linear and the late Art Wilson, who suggested creating an Underground Railroad mural. It took time to pick the right spot and get funding for the mural.
“We wanted it to be a very noticeable very prominent mural, so finding the right location — we had a list in our minds of things we needed to do,” Tighe said.
Grants from the Illinois Arts Council, Healing Illinois and Dot Charitable have secured $30,000 for the mural “plus a few extra on miscellaneous costs,” Tighe said.
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The mural’s square footage likely will rival that of the Big Eli Ferris wheel mural in the 200 block of West Douglas Ave., which is the biggest mural commissioned by the organization.
The mural is being painted by Carl Scott Lindley, who painted the Benjamin Grierson mural at 235 W. State St. and the Alonzo H. Kenniebrew mural at 32 N. Central Park Plaza, and helped redo the Ulysses S. Grant mural at 72 E. Central Park Plaza.
Tighe hopes the mural will be finished in time for Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., she said. If not, the next target date would be the Fourth of July.
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Nick Little, a member of Jacksonville Main Street’s design committee and Jacksonville Area Museum board member, said the mural’s unveiling would coincide with the Underground Railroad exhibit that is opening soon at the museum.
“The mural will complement the ‘Journey to Freedom’ exhibit that will be unveiled at the Jacksonville Area Museum this Saturday,” Little said.