Dr. Larry McClellan: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Illinois and Northwest Indiana

In the decades before the Civil War, more than 4500 enslaved people escaping from the South traveled across Illinois, with many coming to and through the Chicago region. With maps and images, we explore their stories and those of the people who responded to them and became the Underground Railroad.

After graduate work at the University of Chicago, in 1970, Larry helped create Governors State University south of Chicago and served there for 30 years. He is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Community Studies. In the mid-70s, he was mayor of University Park (then Park Forest South). He spent four years as a senior consultant with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, and throughout his career, served as a pastor with diverse congregations.

His consulting, research, and writing focus on freedom seekers and the Underground Railroad, and on African American and regional history south of Chicago. Major publications include 25 articles in the Encyclopedia of Chicago [2005]; The Underground Railroad South of Chicago [2019], co-author of To the River, The Remarkable Journey of Caroline Quarlls, a Freedom Seeker on the Underground Railroad [2019]. Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois [2023], published by Southern Illinois University Press. This received the national 2023 Memorial Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge from the Underground Railroad Free Press and a book award from the Newberry Library in 2025. In 2022, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois State Historical Society for his contributions to Illinois history, and in 2024, he served on the Illinois Underground Railroad Task Force reporting to the state legislature.

Larry has spoken at 6 Illinois state history conferences and 3 national conferences of the National Park Service Network to Freedom program. He was the principal researcher for listings on the NPS Network to Freedom national register of Underground Railroad sites in Crete, Lockport, and Chicago. Some of his work will be found at illinoisundergroundrailroad.info

For ten years, he wrote a monthly regional history column for The Southtown/Star newspapers. Larry graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles, with a year at the University of Ghana in West Africa, and additional studies in Great Britain and Jerusalem. He has served on the boards of the Illinois State Historical Society and the Will County Historical Society and has given lectures and programs across Illinois. Currently, he is President of the Midwest Underground Railroad Network (MURN).

Larry McClellan, 3430 W. Oak Hill Drive, Crete, IL 60417         mcclellan.larry@gmail.com