Journeys to Justice Symposium

The Journeys to Justice symposium brought together community members, scholars, and cultural leaders to foster research and remembrance of lynching, race riots, and massacres across Illinois. Highlights included a bus tour of Black Springfield and 1908 Springfield Race Riot sites, led by historian Doris Bailey, a moving musical performance by Senabella Gill and Robert Irving III, and a screening of I Bear Witness: The Untold Stories of American Race Riots, directed by Cequyna Moore. The documentary explores race riots through the eyes of witnesses and victims, challenging the myth of these events as isolated incidents and revealing them as acts of racial terror. The keynote panel, Descendants of the Greats, featured Myiti Sengstacke Rice, a descendant of Chicago Defender founder Robert Sengstacke Abbott, and Barbara Talley, a descendant of freedom fighter Harriet Tubman. Both shared powerful family legacies and their roles in the ongoing fight for justice and equality. Additional sessions highlighted a range of powerful topics and community-building activities. Brittini “Ree Belle” Gray-Chiquillo of Mama Scrap’s, Inc. curated a Black Rest as Resistance space that offered meditation, quiet rest areas, and essential oil making, emphasizing the restorative power of rest. Shatriya Smith of the Garvey-Tubman Cultural Arts & Research Center led a vibrant Black Joy and Creative Spirit session, featuring a gallery of Black art, vision board making, bracelet making, poetry, spoken word performances, and more. A panel of scholars—Brian Mitchell, Clifton Jackson, Christian Fumey, and Abby Troxell—examined efforts to document and memorialize histories of anti-Black terror. Students from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, moderated by Dr. Bryan Jack, shared reflections on their transformative visit to the Equal Justice Initiative heritage sites. Cequyna Moore of World Heritage-USA presented on restoring justice through monuments, and reparations leaders Twyla Moore, Jeffrey Trask, and Pamela Hoff offered insights on advancing justice and reparations work in Illinois. The symposium concluded with a Healing Circle workshop facilitated by Terrence Pruitt and Justin Walker of Project Restore Initiative, offering space for reflection and community care.
The event was supported by the University of Illinois System, Center for Lincoln Studies, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Illinois Humanities, Memorial Health, and Organic Oneness.