IL HR0490

Declares October 13, 2025 as Lewis Isbell Day in the State of Illinois

Lewis E. Isbell was born into slavery in Kentucky in 1819, emancipated in 1825, and became one of Chicago's first Black residents after Jean Baptiste du Sable when he arrived in 1838

Operated a barbershop at the Sherman House Hotel for 25 years, serving Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, Senator Stephen Douglas, and multiple Chicago mayors

Served as a conductor and leader of the Chicago Underground Railroad, helping transport nearly 1,000 freedom seekers to Canada, and joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839

Commissioned by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1863 to recruit Black troops for the Union Army in Illinois and Wisconsin during the Civil War