Free Frank McWorter, New Philadelphia, Illinois

Unsung heroes

February is National Black History Month. While most people do not think about this, this history has a lot of meaning to all, black and white. Each of the people below changed the lives of black slaves and their descendants for all.

Many can or should recall Martin Luther King, jr and his world changing moral stance on past and current saga of African Americans.  

Many can or should remember Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave who created "The underground railroad".  A movie "Harriet" presented history of this incredible woman.

Tuskegee Airmen from World War 2? History on these brave pilots should be researched by all who find interest in fighter pilots. 

Dorie Miller, a cook on a destroyer in the Pearl Harbor attack, manned an anti-aircraft gun and defended his ship. Then he tended to the injured.  He was the first Black American awarded the Navy Cross. He died in action in 1943.  

We did not and will not get to meet these heroes. But in my home area, another hero made changes in lives.  Free Frank McWorter, a freed black slave, created a town called New Philadelphia, in Pike County, Illinois. I have driven by this monument to him many times over my years at home.

YouTube, about 5 minutes long  

YouTube about 50 seconds long

Only those people outside Pike County Illinois may not have heard of, or even thought about these men. All I can say is that Free Frank McWorter was a hero in every sense of the word. Those from Pike County, Illinois, know and recognize him as important to all around him.

This changed Pike County and its view of slavery.