Historic Cases of McLean County

Historic Cases of McLean County

Sat Nov 3 1:00

Local law buffs and legal aficionados are invited to the Museum on Saturday, November 3 at 1 p.m. for an illustrated program on six historic McLean County cases. Presented by Don Everhart, Clerk of the Circuit Court; Bob Bradley, professor emeritus, Department of Politics and Government, Illinois State University; Guy Fraker, Bloomington attorney and Lincoln scholar; and Bill Kemp, librarian, McLean County Museum of History, the program will examine two cases tied to Abraham Lincoln—including one of the most celebrated criminal trials ever held in the county, People v. Wyant (1857). Other cases examined will include an influential school desegregation case from the 1870s, as well as the legal proceedings that resulted from the Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival of 1970 almost a century later. This program is the result of the work the McLean County Historic Cases Committee, organized as part of the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission’s “History on Trial” Illinois Bicentennial project. Circuit Court Clerk Everhart is chair of the committee.

This free, public program will be held in the Governor Fifer Courtroom on the second floor of the Museum (the site where two of these cases were decided. Free parking is available on the street or in the Lincoln Parking Deck, located one block south of the Museum on Front Street. For more information about this program, please contact the Education Department at [email protected] or by phone at 309-827-0428.