When El Paso, Illinois, high school history teacher Michael Melick decided to have his advanced class focus on local history, he didn’t predict it would result in a museum devoted to voting rights in this heart-of-corn-country town, population 2,730. El Paso is north of Bloomington, 87 miles from Springfield.
But while Melick initially may not have envisioned the Project XV Museum coming to life in downtown El Paso, others soon joined him in creating what promises to be unique in Illinois. The museum devotes itself to the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, seeking to “honor the legacy of those who have fought for (the vote) and empower others to use it,” according to its website.
Melick may have been wary of tackling such a big project but now sees its importance. “Here we are in 2025 and the next generation has to fight to preserve (the right to vote),” he says. Historically, more than half of Americans didn’t have that right to vote. “We’ve moved in the right direction but we have more to go.”
The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. on Mondays and by appointment but should add days as more exhibits are funded and completed. The goal is to have all major ones ready in April, a year since the first exhibit opened.
Already, exhibits detail the struggles for voting rights for minorities and women and include such artifacts as slave shackles and a voting booth, complete with hanging chads on Florida ballots from the 2000 presidential election. Also part of the museum is the restored 1872 barbershop of David Strother, the first Black man to vote in Illinois and the inspiration for those high school history students.
The students started studying El Paso history in 2019 and came across Strother, who was born in 1843 to free Blacks in the slave state of Missouri. After his father died, his mother moved the family to Peoria, so she could raise her children in a free state.
Strother worked on riverboats, served as a cook with General Ulysses S. Grant’s troops in the Civil War and later moved to a relatively young El Paso. Several of his war buddies encouraged him to start a barbershop in the town, which grew because it was on a train line.
“He must have been good, as he shaved David Davis,” says Museum Curator Brian Ulrich. Davis was a prominent judge, friend of Abraham Lincoln and one of the many white customers Strother groomed. Ulrich noted that Black barbers at the time had to choose Black or white customers, and with El Paso having only a few Blacks, Strother served only whites.
“He was beloved here but had to make a choice,” Ulrich says. “You couldn’t step over the color line.”
El Paso held a mayoral election soon after the 15th Amendment, ratified on Feb. 3, 1870, gave Black men the vote. That lead to Strother being among the first Black men in the country to vote, and the first in Illinois. The amendment was so new that one election official initially turned Strother away, but reversed when shown evidence the Constitution had changed.
Next to Strother’s barbershop with chairs, shaving mugs and a rainwater shower, other exhibits explain his life and the practice of early barbering. You can strap on a virtual reality headset and an actor’s voice helps you maneuver through the shop and adjoining exhibits.
The virtual reality exhibit is likely popular with the school groups the museum is already hosting. The museum includes a small classroom and two play areas for children, including their own voting booths.
Melick says the museum plans to add a big exhibit on the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and gather ballot boxes from different eras. An interactive literacy test will help tell the story of how Blacks were discouraged from exercising their right to vote in certain areas.
A recording studio devoted to “Your Vote, Your Voice” will allow visitors to add their narratives to voting rights history and researchers to focus on such human-based experiences rather than solely on numbers, Melick says.
Ulrich has had a major hand in planning and organizing the exhibits, assisted by a board of university history professors, local businesspeople and Melick. A native of El Paso, Ulrich spent years working in various media in Los Angeles before moving back to lend his expertise. He produced the museum’s introductory video introducing Strother.
Another planned exhibit will have different filters for news sources, illustrating how voters don’t always get a full picture of events. An interactive display for lesser offices should make better voters, Ulrich says, adding the museum would like to become an official polling place.
He emphasizes the Project XV Museum is nonpartisan, “We take great pains to keep things fair.” The museum has not faced negative pushback and has support from private and corporate foundation grants. A spring gala is a major fundraiser, and visitors are encouraged to leave donations of $15 for adults, $10 for students and $5 for those aged 3-10.
Melick says it is important for the museum to be in El Paso. “Strother was from here so it is our story to tell.”
For more information on the museum go to www.projectxvmuseum.com. You can make an appointment to see it by calling 309-564-5466 or sending a request via the website.
Mary Bohlen likes to visit unique spots in Illinois and surrounding states and write about them for ReGen and other publications. She was a reporter for United Press International and taught journalism for 30 years at the University of Illinois Springfield.
This article appears in December 11-17, 2025.
Celebrating the demographic that reliably votes 80-90% Democrat 🙃