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Here is a profile of a man who drove vice presidents and governors, wealthy landowners, visiting artists, and the prominent of Bloomington-Normal all about town more than a century ago. During Black History Month, this episode of McHistory shows you the working life of Absolom Hawkins, a well-known African American man in the Twin Cities. It also tells you about a 19th century brain drain of African Americans. Those who became educated had to leave the area to get jobs outside the working class.

The early 1900s saw an influx of racism and discrimination in the Midwest, from anti catholic, anti immigrant, and anti African American sentiment, to race riots in Springfield, Chicago, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Klu Klux Klan became a force in central Illinois. Segregation grew in Bloomington-Normal and what had been a thriving black middle class was gradually destroyed.

Bloomington-Normal had only one documented lynching.

John L. Walcott was Bloomington's first undertaker. This episode of McHistory shares the story of one cabinet furnisher turned coffin maker. This episode of McHistory was produced by WGLT's Mary Cullen, featuring Bill Kemp of the McLean County Museum of History and Seth Wheeler, a volunteer with the museum. Hear more local history stories by subscribing to WGLT's McHistory podcast . People like you value experienced, knowledgeable and award-winning journalism that covers meaningful stories in

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Irons Folsom Fox blazed the path for women in Bloomington-Normal who had dreams of writing in the late 1800s.