When LaCaje Hill was appointed to fill the vacant seat on the Carbondale City Council on Tuesday evening, the council once again made history.

A small town in southern Illinois reaches racial parity in their city council makeup, with a black mayor and equal number of black and white members. Oh, and they also have an openly trans council member as well…

This from a part of the state where some people still fly Confederate battle flags.

  • displaced_city_mouseOPEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Agreed, and I left out the part about it being the home of SIU – thanks for the addition. This of course adds to the liberalness of the place. You are 100% correct – it stands out, which is what makes this news worthy.

    Compared to the rest of the area, Carbondale is an outlier. The city itself is 66% white/23% black, while Jackson county is 77+% white/23% black, per the 2010 census. Compared to surrounding counties, like Williamson(92% v. 4%), Franklin(98% v <1%), or Saline(93% v 4%), Carbondale and Jackson county are positively killing it when it comes to racial equality.