editor's page, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 2003

This issue of the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society is offered to its readers with both an exclamation and an apology. The four articles certainly inform us about Illinois people with varied experiences! The first is about the assassination of a popular Chicago mayor, another is about an 1893 automobile race in the city, a third is about a little-known, yet amazingly talented musician, and the last is about the integration of Decatur baseball. All the author's made extensive use of local newspapers to document their articles.

Richard Alien Morton gives us the story of Mayor Carter H. Harrison's murder, as well as the fate of the mayor's assassin; it is an examination of the social response to the events of October 1893, and uses contemporary newspaper articles to show how and why the two men are joined in history.

In his article about Chicago's 1895 "Race of the Century," Cord Scott examines the beginnings of automobile racing in America. He shows how cars replaced bicycles as the favorite racing vehicles among well-to-do Americans; he also illustrates how automobile racing allowed working-class Americans to become involved in the sport.

Marian M. Ohman examines the life of Major N. Clark Smith. Smith was a prolific early-twentieth-century Chicago musician who served as a teacher, a bandleader, and composer. Ohman has been able to document Smith's achievements by fully examining little-used primary sources.

And Stephen Chicoine uses local newspapers to tell the story of Jim Freeman who, in 1953, became the first African American to play baseball for the Decatur Commodores. Chicoine uses Freeman's experiences to show how the people of Decatur reacted to the end of segregation in the sport.

And I promised you an apology. The last issue of the journal was inadvertently misnumbered. The cover and the title page are labled "Vol. 96, No. 4." They should have read, "Vol. 95, No. 4." I am sorry for the error and I ask you to forgive the mistake.