A New Mobile App Will Honor Black Founder of Barry, IL

Another new outlet for education on local black history has emerged in the tri-state area. The first city platted by a black man in the United States just got its own online app.

The Quincy Herald-Whig reports the New Philadelphia augmented reality app - called "New Phil AR"- is the first phase of a project to boost the site near Barry, Illinois, where Free Frank McWorter founded his city in the 1830s. The app was created with a $10,000 grant from the U.S. National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program and $4,000 in matching funds from the Illinois Electric Cooperative.

This new app joins other local sources of black history education in the tri-state area. In Hannibal, the Jim's Journey exhibit charts the life of the man immortalized in Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" along with chronicling the history of African-Americans in the Hannibal area. Quincy also celebrates the history of its African-American population with publicized sites such as the Dr. Richard Ells Home and the Fr. Augustus Tolton burial site. With this new educational app, Barry joins the rest of the tri-state area in remembering our regional history and the African-Americans involved in it.