Edie,

You mentioned Springfield, IL, which by the way was the site of a great conference this past week, put together by the Federation of Genealogical Societies. I was pleased to see a fair number of African American attendees--more than I expected.

But more important to you, I want to say that another black paper the Indianapolis Freeman, was more national in scope, and is a place where you may find more columns on Springfield. This paper is on microfilm, but it has been digitized by GenealogyBank.com which is a paid subscription site. Stacey Adger who is on Facebook gave a link several months ago to a place where the Freeman can be viewed online for free, but I cannot recall it at the moment. If you are on FB, you may want to "friend" her and ask.

In addition, two black newspapers from the 1890s survive that were published in Springfield, the Illinois Record & State Capital. They are also on film and at GenealogyBank. And of course, the Chicago Defender has many, many columns of Springfield news from the first half of the 1900s.

Tim