The residents of Pembroke Township/Hopkins Park have been the succeeding stewards of what is now one of the most prized ecosystems in the state of Illinois referred to as the Kankakee Sands. This tradition of stewardship dates back to the care of the savanna by the indigenous people, the Potawatomi, who did controlled burns that maintained the savanna.

Pembroke is one of the oldest black rural townships. It was founded by a runaway slave named Pap Tetter before the Emancipation Proclamation. Folk history tells us that he and his family of 18 children escaped from North Carolina around 1861. He originally acquired 42 acres of what is now called Old Hopkins Park, created a safe place for other runaway slaves and the Potawatomi who did not go to reservations.

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Hopkins Park was a terminal for the underground railroad and became a secure space for ethnic diversity among the indigenous people and those who migrated there. In the northern migration, Pembroke came to be the largest black farming community north of the Mason Dixon Line. During World War II, these farmers answered the nation’s call for hemp. Pembroke was the 3rd largest hemp producer in the nation.

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The name Pembroke has Welsh roots and means “aqueduct.” It was a key spot along a trading route that linked Fort Dearborn in Chicago to Vincennes, Indiana.

Pembroke was known as a favored gaming area due to the abundance of wildlife. It is said that celebrities including presidents would frequent the area to hunt.

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"While Pembroke has been said to be one of the poorest areas in the country, it is rich with history, heritage and generations who have committed to caring for the land."

Pembroke is often referred to as "forgotten," but in some ways it's not; over the past 40 years, it's been the subject of pieces by the Tribune, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, the Oprah Winfrey Show, People, and CBS. Richard Nixon sent a task force to the town during his presidency. As Rev. Hezekiah Brady told the Trib in 1981, "We have been surveyed in, out, over, under, and every other angle imaginable. More people have received their Ph.D's off of Pembroke than anywhere else. Yet, nothing changes."

Help Selassie Fest change the fate of Pembroke.

See the article linked above