The small town of Brooklyn, Illinois once boasted 3,000 people in its heyday, but now is a village of less than 800. This town has a...

Jennie Gatewood was hailed as the "Queen of colored sopranos," during the height of her musical career. She was born in Virginia and...

Section 3 in Oak Dale Cemetery in Urbana appears largely void of burials, but many gravesites are unmarked with a few exceptions. Among...

Dig out your old photos, papers, and family artifacts for the second Annual Heritage Pop Up Gallery during the Urbana Black Heritage...

With the opening of Oak Dale Cemetery in 1856, the Trustees of the time passed a resolution restricting sections 2 and 3 as the only...

In the spring of 1886, Mayor Charles H. Ganson made local history. As he was making his appointments for city boards and jobs, he...

Capitola Dickerson was known as the “songbird” of her senior class of Urbana High School in 1930. Even at a young age, when Capitola sang...

The Urbana Black Heritage Festival Committee and the Urbana community are immensely proud to celebrate the recognition of our very own...

There are scores of unmarked graves of African Americans citizens in historic Oak Dale Cemetery in Urbana. They were relegated to the...

Fifty years ago, divine intervention was at play on the evening of Sunday, August 12, 1973. In that moment, the roof of Jerusalem Second...

Guy F. Allen spent most of his life along Buckeye Street in Urbana. Born in 1908, he was the son of Harry and Clara (Guy). For many years...

In January of 1975, the Ohio Legislature took up the debate to recognize the third Monday of January as a state holiday in honor of the...

Located beyond the city limits of Urbana, James and Bessie Strawther supplied the majority of the greater community’s strawberry crop....

Numerous African American men and women from Urbana can be counted among the community’s entrepreneurs. Although the career opportunities...

Do you know the “Mayor of Possumtown”? While the location of that fabled community is not exactly known, the identity of its leader is...

Hill Street in Urbana has been the home to many distinguished African Americans throughout the community’s history. Business and civic...

In 1874, the southern edge of Urbana was known as “Gooseville”. It is an area roughly bounded by Powell Avenue to the north, and the...

The northwest corner of East Market and South Locust Streets has historic and diverse roots in Urbana’s 217 year history. The now vacant...

346 Hill Street stands at the entrance of what once led to the old factory pond on the grounds of the Urbana Woolen Mills (known today as...

Urbana native Barbara Howell made a lifelong commitment to working with youth and aiding low-income families. Born in 1923, Barbara...