Glennette Tilley Turner is an author, historian, and educator. She had previously noticed that she rarely saw books about the Underground Railroad and once she found out that it ran through the state of Illinois, she started collecting information about it and later used that information to write and publish books that could be read by people of all ages. The Underground Railroad has been the focus of much of her historical research particularly in Illinois, elsewhere in the Middle West, and in her childhood home of St. Augustine, Florida.

 

She served on the nine-member Underground Railroad Advisory Committee of the National Park Service (NPS) and testified before sub-committees of the U.S. Senate and House and the Illinois Senate in support of UGRR legislation. Her Underground Railroad program is recognized by the NPS Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (NTF). At the NTF's 2012 conference she received the Wilbur H. Siebert Award for "Outstanding Work in the Field of the Underground Railroad." While there she did an on-camera interview with filmmaker Haile Gerimo for an upcoming PBS documentary, "The Maroons." Her Underground Railroad work was recognized by artist Dr. Charles Smith in a life-sized sculpture at the Anacostia Community Museum Smithsonian Institution and in a collage by Jan P. Voogd.

​

Make sure to check back for any news regarding Mrs. Turner's work.

​