September 9-October 8, 2025

The St. Charles Center is hosting a traveling exhibit from the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center on the history of the Randolph Freedpeople.  The Randolph Freedpeople were 383 former slaves who had been set free in the will of their master, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia in 1846 after years of court battles contesting his will.  Money was set aside, and 3,200 acre of land in Mercer County, Ohio was purchased as their new home.  They traveled over 600 miles to get to their property, but were stopped along the way, and never actually saw the land that was to have been theirs.

This exhibit tells their story from slavery to settlement.