Our Mission

We will tell authentic stories about African-American life in Central Illinois, past and present, celebrating and sharing our history and culture and planning for our future.

We will do this through scholarship, oral histories, exhibits, partnerships, our board, our supporters and our friends. We are and will be community builders.

We recognize that our stories are at once unique but connected to those of other communities and we will support those interconnections. We will be integral to the cultural life of our area. We will partner with like-minded organizations. We will be proactive in our community. We will study and apply best-practices in business, scholarship and communication.