Heritage Trail Founding Cadre, Partners & Sponsors

Special Acknowledgments

The Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in Illinois grew from years of research, documentation, oral history, historic preservation, and collaboration. We gratefully acknowledge the individuals and institutions who helped lay the foundation for this work.

Black Panther Party; Billy “Ché” Brooks and former members of the Illinois Chapter

Landmarks Illinois; Lisa DiChiera

Loyola University Chicago, Public History Program; Professor Ted Karamanski, Adam Yunis, and Michael Spehn

Illinois State Historic Preservation Office; Amy Hathaway

Preservation Futures; Elizabeth Blasius and Jonathan Solomon

Lawyers for the Creative Arts

Chicago History Museum; John Russick, Charles Bethea, Erica Griffin

Heritage Trail Founding Cadre

The Founding Cadre are those who joined us at the beginning of this preservation effort, from the launch of our landmarking initiative in 2020 through the 2023 National Register of Historic Places achievement, to the establishment of the Black Panther Party Heritage Trail in 2026. Membership in the Historical Preservation Society is now closed. The Founding Cadre is our revolutionary community that helped establish this groundbreaking work.

Thank you for your partnership and support.