* SIU News…

John J. Bird was a well-known and highly respected leader in civil rights, politics and education more than 150 years ago in Illinois. A recently published book about Bird — who lived in both Cairo and Springfield — by Wayne T. Pitard looks to renew interest in a man who broke many racial barriers but whose statewide impact is overlooked. […]

An emeritus professor of religion and director emeritus of the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Pitard said he became “fascinated” with Bird in 2015 when he came across a brief paragraph on Bird while doing research for a museum exhibit honoring the university’s sesquicentennial. Bird was appointed in 1873 by then-Gov. John Beveridge to the board of trustees of Illinois Industrial University, which later became UIUC, who were otherwise all-white. Pitard became curious and delved further into Bird’s background, and when historians “seemed unaware of him,” he began searching for 19th century information from resources, including newspaper clippings and city directories.

“What I discovered is that there was much more to John Bird than his board appointment and that, although now forgotten, he had been one of the most significant Black civil rights leaders and politicians in post-Civil War Illinois,” Pitard said. “I found him so remarkable that I couldn’t stop looking into his life until I wound up with a book-length manuscript.”

Bird broke another racial barrier when he was invited to speak at the opening ceremonies of then-Southern Illinois Normal University in 1874, “the first time an African American had taken part in and addressed such a celebration,” Pitard said. Beveridge, along with the presidents of Northwestern University and Bloomington Normal School (now Illinois State) and Robert Allyn, the new SINU president, also spoke.

“Bird and Allyn came to be longtime colleagues. In 1889, Allyn wrote a letter to Gov. Joseph Fifer in support of Bird for a state position, in which he refers to Bird as ‘my friend,’” Pitard said. “This honorific occasion was tempered, however, by the fact that the local planning committee, which had made hotel and dining reservations for the other speakers, failed to do so for Bird, who had to walk 2 miles out of town to stay with a friend. This is an instance of the kinds of racist treatment that Bird, as a successful Black man, had to endure.” […]

Pitard said Bird, born in 1844 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to free parents “who educated him well and gave him a strong sense of duty” traveled to Cairo in 1864 “with the intention of aiding and organizing the large population of refugees from enslavement in the South who had settled there into a new, cohesive community,” Pitard said. “He immediately became the primary voice representing this community through the 1860s, ’70s and most of the ’80s. He fought tirelessly for their civil rights and was remarkably successful. He became a role model for activism in the late 19th century.”

Bird’s other accomplishments included:

- Being elected police magistrate in Cairo in 1873, becoming the first Black elected judge in Illinois.
- Leading the fight to create the first Black public school in Cairo.
- Becoming the most prominent Black Republican in Southern Illinois and a leader in the Black convention movement in Illinois from the 1870s through the 1890s.
- Becoming editor of three newspapers in the 1880s and 1890s, including The State Capital newspaper, which “played an important role in guiding political thought throughout the Midwest.”

* More from SJ-R…

John J. Bird became the first African-American trustee of the University of Illinois more than a decade before the school even had any Black students.

Bird’s tombstone in Oak Ridge Cemetery doesn’t mention that distinction, but its text does include an unusual note: the stone was “erected by the 47th General Assembly of Illinois.” And newspaper stories show that two lawmakers from Springfield – Reps. Thomas Lyon and James Morris (both white) – were among the half-dozen speakers at Bird’s memorial service.

None of the stories or other records say why Bird was accorded such recognition. His term on the university may have been part of the reason, but the brief accounts of the grave dedication don’t mention it. The articles describe Bird only as “a colored janitor at the state house.”

What also went unsaid was that Bird had been prominent in African-American organizations statewide for more than four decades, a role he parlayed with political activism to try to push Illinois Republicans to support Black civil rights.