Brooklyn, Illinois
| Brooklyn | |
| Village | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| County | St. Clair |
| Coordinates | 38°39′24″N 90°9′55″W / 38.65667°N 90.16528°WCoordinates: 38°39′24″N 90°9′55″W / 38.65667°N 90.16528°W |
| Area | 0.83 sq mi (2 km2) |
| - land | 0.83 sq mi (2 km2) |
| - water | 0.00 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Population | 749 (2010) |
| Density | 801.9/sq mi (310/km2) |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 62059 |
| Area code | 618 |
 Location in St. Clair County and the state of Illinois.
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.svg) Location of Illinois in the United States
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Brooklyn (popularly known as Lovejoy), is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. Located two miles north of East St. Louis, Illinois and three miles northeast of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, it is the oldest town incorporated by African Americans in the United States. It was founded by freed and fugitive slaves from St. Louis, led by "Mother" Priscilla Baltimore in the period of 1829 to 1839. Its motto is "Founded by Chance, Sustained by Courage". The current mayor is Mayor Vera Banks-Glasper. Superstar Tina Turner regularly performed at a local club in her early years as an entertainer.
A missionary AME Church was established in the new settlement in 1836. Now known as Quinn's Chapel AME, its congregation is believed to have supported the Underground Railroad and aided fugitive slaves to freedom, together with members of the Antioch Baptist Church established in 1838.
According to oral history tradition, by 1829 "Mother" Priscilla Baltimore led a group of eleven families, composed of both fugitive and free African Americans, to flee slavery in St. Louis, Missouri. They crossed the Mississippi River to the free state of Illinois, where they established a freedom village in the American Bottoms. "Mother" Baltimore was said to have purchased her freedom as an adult from her master. She also bought the freedom of members of her family. Born in Kentucky, she tracked her white father to Missouri and bought her mother's freedom from him. The earliest black families included Anderson, Sullivan, Singleton, Wilson, Cox, Wyatt, and Carper.
Miranda Yancey-Bailey, an archeologist working on a 21st-century project in Brooklyn, has found written evidence that Baltimore still lived in St. Louis in the 1830s; the first documentation of her associated with Brooklyn is from 1839. She may have been traveling between these locations for a time.
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Wikipedia