During lunch periods Feb. 2, Downers Grove Historical Society board president Marty Acks came to speak to students about the story of Israel Blackburn. Audiences of about 20 to 30 students each period filled the room to listen about the historical events involving Blackburn that led up to the founding of what people now call the Village of Downers Grove.
“This is the first school we have done these presentations with. We’re really interested in getting our message across to all members of the community, regardless of their age,” Acks said. “We would like to continue doing these presentations because of that, but we are still looking for other ways to engage with the schools and those younger audiences.”
Beginning his presentation, Acks gave students a rundown on the history of slavery. He progressively went into more detail and brought up key points in America’s history that some of the audience may have not given mind to before.
“I found it intriguing that Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was mentioned in the presentation because it was really impactful to the Civil War and Reconstruction,” freshman Maliah Williams said.
Throughout the rest of the presentation, Acks discussed how the stories of Blackburn and slavery in America were intertwined. He also acknowledged what hardships he has faced as a genealogist when attempting to collect new information about events and individuals of the past.
“There are often a lot of dead ends. If we receive, let’s say a photo someone finds in their garage, we’ll scan it. We work really closely with the Downers Grove Museum, so after we scan that photo, it’ll stay archived there,” Acks said. “The tricky part, though, and I will speak on their behalf, is that if there is not a strong historical connection to Downers Grove, they do have the ability to respectively say ‘no’ if they don’t believe they can use it in one of their educational classes.”
Despite this lack of information on Blackburn, Acks still managed to engage the students in attendance.
“I honestly thought it was really intriguing that there wasn’t much information that they could obtain on him,” junior Jadi’yah Hibbler said. “The stuff they did find, though, like him living under the radar though he was the odd one out, was really cool to hear about.”
Toward the end of the presentation, Acks recalled an event he attended where he and other people discussed Israel Blackburn. To sum up his presentation, he left his audience with a last thought.
“I heard a guy by the name of Christian McCourtner at the Lincoln Library say that Israel Blackburn has a really interesting story that ought to be told,” Acks said. “I completely agree with him, Blackburn lived a very unique life, and I believe people should know about it.”
