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.
Great for Carbondale. You’re painting this as surprising, but calling Carbondale a small town in the rural midwest is misleading. Carbondale has always been far far more liberal than the rest of southern illinois, due to being one of the largest cties and the presence of siuc.
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.
