Nance Legins-Costley

From left to right: Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White, Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman, and Pekin Mayor Mary Burress unveil a new stone monument dedicated to Nance Legins-Costley and her son, William Costley, at the 2023 Tazewell County Juneteenth Festival.

For Juneteenth, Pekin dedicates pocket park to hometown civil rights pioneer Nance Legins-Costley and her son

Tim Shelley

For a long time, the story of the Pekin woman whose historic legal battle to secure her freedom from slavery was all but forgotten. Now, she's getting recognition on both sides of the Illinois River.

Crowds gather at the Freedom and Remembrance Memorial after a ceremony celebrating a creation of the site honoring those buried at the forgotten Moffatt Cemetery.

Local News

Freedom and Remembrance Memorial serves as tribute to the hundreds still interred at former Peoria cemetery

Collin Schopp

The new Freedom and Remembrance Memorial Park on Peoria's Southwest Adams Street commemorates memory of a forgotten cemetery.

This pocket park in the 400 block of Court Street in downtown Pekin will be the site of a memorial to Nance Legins-Costley, the Pekin woman whose legal battle ultimately secured freedom for her family and ended the façade of "indentured servitude" in Illinois.

Local News

A Pekin pocket park will have its own tribute to Nance Legins-Costley, a civil rights pioneer

Tim Shelley

Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman said there is an effort to recognize this tenacious woman in her adopted hometown.