(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The descendants of a man who bought his family's freedom from slavery is donating several culturally significant cookbooks for the benefit of community college culinary students.
Free Frank McWorter planned his freedom from slavery for many years. After saving up while enslaved, McWorter purchased his wife's freedom in 1817.
"He purchased his own freedom the next year, and as a result of later years, purchased 16 family members out of slavery,” says McWorter’s great great-grandson, Abdul McWorter Alkalimat.
He and his sister, Sandra Rosalie McWorter Marsh, are honoring Black history by donating 1,700 historic cookbooks to Washburne Culinary and Hospitality Institute.
Sandra says she she's been collecting the cookbooks since the late-1940s.
"I actually wanted to learn to cook. The way in which I found to be a very useful way was through cookbooks,” she said.
The McWorters say the donation is an ode to Chicago.
"We are Chicagoans, and Chicago has given a lot to us.”
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