Miss Belle Allen, whose name appears on the list of graduates, is a prominent colored lady of this city and is the first of her race to be graduated by the Galesburg High School.  She graduated with merited honors. Some sixty or seventy of our leading citizens, desirous of showing their appreciation of her successful school career and the example she has set as how to secure a proper recognition of her race, purchased a valuable watch and chain and presented them to her as mementoes of Graduation Day. It was intended these beautiful and valuable gifts be presented at an appropriate time during the exercises Friday with an address by Dr. Bateman. But for some reason, Superintendent Andrews objected and the plan was abandoned. We, in common with the donors, fail to see how any objection could be taken to a public presentation as intended.  She was the only colored graduate and the class could have felt no slight and would have appreciated the significance of the gift.

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The Race Problem
An Able Lecture by Hon. B. K. Bruce
(Galesburg's Weekly Republican Register, Saturday, November 12, 1887, contributed by J. Crandell)

     A large audience assembled a the first Church Monday evening to hear the lecture of ex-Senator Bruce upon "The Race Problem". The speaker was introduced by Mr. McCornack, President of the Adelphi Society. The speaker introduced his subject by referring to the vast resources of our country and the period of colonization in which the Anglo-Saxon strong and dominant became the principal factor. The American character became the strongest in the world because it was homogenous, containing elements of the four races of the world. The policy of the government toward the red man, the Mongolian and the black man was one of supreme selfishness. The one was robbed of his dominion, the other was allowed to immigrate because of his labor, and the third was a captive or slave. Slavery was based upon the theory of inferiority. Like the mistletoe that is dependent upon the living tree, so the black man was thought to be dependent upon his superior and was kept in subordination. The speaker then referred to the history of civilization, showing that the nations of people latest in development were invariably the strongest. The order in time does not determine the excellence of which the race is capable. The ability of the black man when freed was not manifest because of previous condition, and it was feared by many that he would become a burden. But the opposite was the result. They work systematically, doing much to secure homes, and are good artisans, mechanics and merchants. They hold fairs in many of the Southern States, exhibiting their skill and showing their interest in industrial pursuits. So while the condition of the South was against them, and their emancipation was as the coming out of the house of bondage into the dazzling sunlight of freedom, yet their strong hands and willing hearts were the resources they depended on. They were thought to be incapable of self-government. But no black man was ever unfaithful to the stars and stripes and the prisoners escaping from Andersonville received not only protection from them but also shared their scanty meal. They had acquired some knowledge of government by dwelling with the ruling classes, but their inexperience and lack of political leadership were hindrances to their progress. The mistake was not in giving them the ballot, but in failing to instruct them how to use it, instead of allowing them to become intelligent voters by practice. They are a loyal people, ever ready to lay down their lives if need be for the protection of our institutions and in defense of our sacred soil. They have added to the sum of comforts instead of detracting from them, many having become proficient in the different vocations of life. The Freedman's Bureau was one of the most helpful agencies in providing for the education of the freedmen both intellectually and morally. The schools were taught by ladies from the educational institutions of the North, and individuals advanced in age availed themselves of the opportunities they afforded. Clergymen who had been preaching fifty years there learned to spell the name of Jesus. There are yet many without education, and others without educational advantages. It is a matter of importance, as they are or soon will be citizens. As the government liberated and enfranchised them, it should see to it that they are educated. Have we no money to expend? How about the surplus in the treasury? Better use the money for this purpose than to reduce the surplus by taking the tax off of tobacco and whiskey.
     The charge that they are a superstitious people is no more true of them than of any other people placed in similar circumstances. Their moral development has kept pace with the intellectual. They are a people of faith. They have many benevolent societies, the object of which is to care for the sick and the dead. It is difficult to tell whether what has been done for them or by them is the greater. The race conflict predicted by some the speaker regarded as without foundation and said that the solution of the race problem could be expressed in one word -- Americanization. He then paid a glowing tribute to his race for their ability to assimilate, and maintained that their moral and intellectual powers when developed were such as would honor the highest civilization. The lecture was interesting, thoughtful and instructive throughout and was listened to with marked attention.

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She's Last in family with roots here to 1835
by Mary Ann Lehnherr
(Galesburg's newspaper, unknown date, submitted by Janet Durst)

GALESBURG - Susan E. Allen Rogers pulled from the bottom drawer of an antique secretary an old scrap book, filled with deteriorating newspaper clips of the lives and deaths of the Allen family.
     She  is the 20th and last child born to Susan Cannon and John Richard Allen. The last keeper of the scrap book; the last owner of the homestead at 1412 Mulberry St.; the last source of memories for a family that has roots here reaching back to 1835.
     She recently finished writing a history of her family, a year-long project, and read it Sunday to the congregation of her church, Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal, 153 E. Tompkins St., as part of the church activities of Black History Month, celebrated in February.
     Memories of her 80 years are as richly carved in her mind as the polished marble-topped mahogany tables and other pieces of heirloom furniture that stuff her one-room apartment in Moon Towers.
Her grandparents, Thomas and Susan VanAllen Richardson, came here with their nine children from Warren County, Kentucky, near Mammoth Cave, in 1835.
     "They traveled through and were hidden by the Underground Railroad in which there was a passage from Beecher Chapel (near the site of the Public Library) to the Central Congregational Church," she said.
They settled on the old Ferris Estate on the corner of West Main and Academy streets. "The Taco House is there now," she said, pointing out of her fifth floor window, overlooking Hope Cemetery.
     It is a coincidence that her church is named Allen Chapel. The namesake is Bishop Richard Allen of Philadelphia, but her great-grandparents were instrumental in founding the church in 1853, she said.
     "Grandmother Cannon sold her hogs in order to go to a conference in Chicago to gain permission to organize the church," she said. The council sent Rev. J. W. Earley to organize it in the home of her great-grandparents.
     The first church was destroyed by a fire in 1870, was rebuilt but a few months later burned again. The "old clapboard structure" on East Tompkins Street was rebuilt by Rev. Charles Jacob. The present brick veneer was added in 1911.
     Her father lived in Galesburg for 68 of his 84 years. Born in Marion County, Mo., he moved here as a young man with his parents. He attended public schools here and became fluent in Swedish, which enabled him to work as an interpreter for Knox County for 12 years, and to joke with the Swedish immigrants.
     "He used to go to the train and tell them that if they stayed here as long as he, they'd turn black too. Some of them really did not know what to think," she said, laughing.
     Her mother's parents, Clarissa and James Cannon, moved to Monmouth in 1865 with their two children. Her grandparents are buried in Hope Cemetery.
     "Just to keep the record straight ...there are black people in there (Hope).  My brother-in-law's brother, Clearance Fleming, killed in the Spanish-American War, is also buried there."
     Her mother and uncle attended the public one-room school, which is now the Colored Masonic Temple in Monmouth. Her mother attended Monmouth Academy, now Monmouth College.
     "She was educated to be a foreign missionary," her daughter said.
     She never visited foreign lands, Rogers said, "because her mission changed to raising the 12 girls and eight boys in her large family."
     She "worked for the betterment of man, fighting prejudice, speaking out all her life," Rogers said.
     She was a trustee, class leader, stewardess and president of the Christian Endeavor in her church. She was chairman of the committee who met with the City Council to secure Lake Storey Beach; she was board chairman of the Knox County Republican Women's Club and League of Women Voters; one of the organizers of Patron Chapter #18, Order of the Eastern Star, and a past matron. Rogers said she is the fifth past matron of the chapter.
     Guests in their home included Booker T. Washington, Osco and Stauton DePriest, Mary B. Talbort, Walter White, Rassco Simmons, and Bishop A. J. Carey, all activists, working to help the black race, she said.
     Her mother was a past president of Central District and State District of the Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, organizer of the Autumn Leaf Missionary Society and Allen Guard and member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
     "She was a staunch supporter and worker in the Republican party and as a fluent speaker, campaigned in Springfield and throughout the state for various state senators and congressmen. She was closely associated with Gov. Charles S. Deneen, who served from 1905 to 1913, and Congressman Edward J. King."
     Rogers said she also worked with the state pardon and parole board in the release of a number of worthy black prisoners.
     "Mother got us involved in uplifting experiences. She didn't send us. She took us."
     Rogers has not been the activist her mother was. One sister did continue the causes. Rogers was a cook for Knox College for 50 years.
     Her mother was also "a good friend and advisor for the renown poet Carl Sandburg and his brother Martin G." In Sandburg's book, 'Always the Young Strangers,' he made note of her mother, she said.
     "Mother visited him in Niles, Mich., once and reported in her amazement, that she thought she had seen everything until she witnessed goats walking around in Carl's living room."
     Rogers laughed. "They were walking in Flat Rock, N.C., too, Mother didn't visit there, but they kept in touch," she said.
     As a child, Rogers and some of her sisters would visit Sandburg.
     "He was strumming on his old guitar, his hair standing up on his head in its usual manner and he was singing a song in Swedish. I asked him to teach me a song in Swedish, but he told me to have my father do it because he was more Swede than he."
     A neighbor taught her instead so she could surprise her father.
     "When Pa came walking up the path, I ran out to impress him with my song in perfect Swedish. Not only was Pa not impressed (it was so dirty!), he told me NEVER to sing the song again, and to try 'Yes, Jesus Loves Me.' "
     Her father died in 1933 at age 84. Her mother died at age 76 in 1935. She had been asked by Prof. J. H. Attwood of Knox College to prepare a black history of the college for its centennial, but did not live to see the pageant at Lake Storey. Activist daughter, Eva Solomon, filled in for her, Rogers said.
     Old photographs cover Rogers' walls and tables. None of her brothers married. Only five children were born to two of the daughters.
     "People didn't believe my father's obituary when it said 20 children, and only five grandchildren."
     She clearly resembles a photo of her mother as a young woman.
     "I look at her and think, 'Mother, you sure worked hard doing good,' " adding, "I think people are just supposed to do that." 

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