Cairo, Illinois is trending in the state of Illinois so a bit of history about Cairo. Cairo was historically the gateway to the south from Illinois. It's closer to Alabama than it is to the city of Chicago. It was home to perhaps one of the most violent and long race wars in

America. There was constant gunfire into the public housing in cairo as a form of racialized terrorism. The shooting was constant and the interesting thing was that black folks there often shot back.

Cairo is less than 30 minutes south of Carbondale and in 1969 a man named Reggie met with Huey Newton and decided to form a chapter of the black panthers in Carbondale. We could write extensively of the black panthers in cdale, but one thing they did was bring

White students from SIU to Cairo as this was one of the only way to get whites in Cairo to stop shooting. This allowed for people to go get groceries, children to play, etc.

There is a long history of racial violence in Cairo going from all the way to the current day. Lynchings, mysterious "suicide" of a black solider in the county jail, firebombings, shootings, and actual factions of whites called, "the white hats"

White hats being whites, klansmen, and cops. Eventually after the efforts of black panthers and national guard stepping in, the fight turned to desegregation there and a boycott was started aganist white businesses. The whites did not waiver and instead just left.

There are no white people left in cairo. Throughout most of its history the population were 40% poc and the massive migration away from cairo began the beginning of the end. Cairo is now a ghost town of black people living in extreme poverty. I implore everyone to do furtherr

Research into cairo and if possible visit it. In the words of a former professor, "cairo looks like a nuke went off... or at least was fire bombed like Dresden."
There are no grocery stores or really any businesses left there at all.

Only the stone and concrete buildings of the town hall, the bank, and the national guard outpost. Buildings of great fortitude, built for whites to rule over and dominate blacks.

Shooting into fucking public housing. Fucking heartbreaking place

#cairo #Illinois