24-02-2025
Honoring Black History: Preserving Black History in Timmons Hall
Christine Peoples didn't think her job at the library would lead her to Timmons Hall.
'I have always been connected to community. I think it's just word of mouth started happening because I really did not seek this role, but because I've been working in the community for so long and on the same things that it kind of it came to me. I started with the meet and greet at the library. That was something that I had created for our young families and the things that we would do for empowerment, for youth and all of that,' Peoples said.
When the Springfield-Greene County Park Board took over Timmons Hall, her name was popping up more often as the best person to run the building.
'I was really blessed to have, you know, folks seek me out, and I came and I applied for it and I had the backing of my community,' Peoples said.
Timmons Hall is part historical artifact and part educational outlet.
'Timmons Hall actually was saved and moved by the community to the space we're i now, located in Silver Springs Park, which is the only park that blacks could go to during the time of segregation. The church itself is 600 feet from up the hill. It's a living archive. This is home to a lot of the African American community and it's something that they know. So the history of spaces like this, repurposed spaces like I had mentioned during times of segregation, you couldn't go to school. To bring it back to life and restore it, it was saying, you know, we matter,' Peoples said. 'It's really a perfect place to have history come out of it and to solidify that black folks are here and they were thriving. When people come into the space, they really feel an atmosphere that they enjoy. Folks that have never been in this space before, the atmosphere is still there, and so it's a great place for us to open up conversation and do programing and to for people to fellowship and get to know each other and build relationships.'
She says Black history is important to recognize, especially when it comes to the story of how Springfield came to be.
'Alberta Ellis, her family came through statehood and they were right outside of Ebenezer, Missouri, they've always been here. Co-founders of the town that wasn't built, they were side by side,' Peoples said. 'It's very important and it's very crucial to have that history in the forefront because we're community together. We're not community separate, even though they were separate facilities, but everybody was building together.'
Every year Peoples puts on 'Freedom Classroom 101', bringing people from across the country to share their stories in Springfield.
'My motto for Freedom Classroom 101 is 'research, rethink and reimagine' how you teach and educate. When you put the context of community on that, I want to bring community back that we've lost. I think that some of the disconnect is because we need to go back and revisit and think about those times, because it's the idea that we wouldn't be here today, none of us, if our past hadn't been first,' Peoples said.
Whether it's learning from 98-year-old Miss Alma, who Peoples says has a memory sharp as a tack, or working on the next year's Freedom Classroom 101, Peoples continues to bring the past to the present.
'I believe that timing is right. I believe it's always been right, but it's more prevalent right now than it ever has been for this generation because other generations, the past generations, they had a method. They understood what needed to be done, either from the teachers of Lincoln School here in Springfield to the churches throughout this heritage trail. They knew what needs to be done and they were all unified. So that makes it makes a huge difference,' Peoples said.
Above you can watch Ozarks First's Honoring Black History special.
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