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Eastern Region Sites of Civil Rights & Resistance Portal
Discover History Below the Forest Canopy
Explore Sites of Civil Rights and Resistance Across the Eastern Region
The Forest Service is excited to share a brand-new tool called the Eastern Region Sites of Civil Rights & Resistance Portal to provide information about important historical Sites of Civil Rights and Resistance throughout the Region.
The first launch of this tool highlights African American history, narratives and themes of settlement on several of our National Forests in the region. This platform is just a starting point for public engagement, connections with descendant communities and interested collaborators, in hopes of fostering deeper conversation for these and future sites to explore and collaborate.
We value your feedback and comments!
Historical Sites of Interest
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Miller Grove- Shawnee National Forest (Illinois)
Miller Grove is a pre-Civil War African-American community settled in the 1840s by manumitted enslaved people and "free people of color" from Tennessee. The community consisted of adjoining farmsteads, a church/school and cemetery. Several lines of evidence suggest that at least some members of the community were actively participating in the Underground Railroad, assisting self-emancipators from the south reach freedom in the north.
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Sugar Grove- Allegheny National Forest (Pennsylvania)
Sugar Grove was one of the most well-known abolitionist communities in Warren County, Pennsylvania. According to the Warren County Historical Society, Cynthia Catlin Miller and her husband Dr. James Miller were dedicated abolitionists. The Millers entertained Frederick Douglass during the 1854 Anti-Slavery Convention, to which Douglass called “the crowning convention of them all.”
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Elmwood Camp- Ottawa National Forests (Michigan)
Logging camp buildings were subsequently re-occupied in 1926–1929 by African Americans from Chicago. These individuals had been lured to the area by the opportunity to buy farm farmland using money earned by cutting the remaining pulpwood in logged-over areas.