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Cairo ( / ˈkɛəroʊ / KAIR-oh, [4] sometimes / ˈkeɪroʊ / KAY-roh) [5] is the southernmost city in Illinois and the county seat of Alexander County. A river city, Cairo has the lowest elevation of any location in Illinois and is the only Illinois city to be surrounded by levees.
From 1967 to 1973, an extended period of racial unrest occurred in the town of Cairo, Illinois. The city had long had racial tensions which boiled over after a black soldier was found hanged in his jail cell.
May 18, 2024 · Cairo once had a population of more than 15,000, but today just 1,700 residents live in the once-bustling Illinois city on the Mississippi River. Decades of economic decline and racial violence led Cairo to become a ghost town.
Aug 22, 2016 · Discover Abandoned Town of Cairo, Illinois in Cairo, Illinois: A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.
Mar 16, 2022 · Today, Cairo is in the poorest cities in Illinois. Its population is down to a measly 1,700 – half of what it was 20 years ago and 9x smaller than it was 80 years ago. This rapid decline has lead to much of the city being abandoned, with buildings condemned but still standing, leaving an eerie ghost town of empty houses and commercial spaces.
Located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at the southernmost tip of Illinois is the town of Cairo, pronounced “Care-O.”. By far one of the strangest and saddest cities I’ve ever visited, I was immediately intrigued by the empty streets and abandoned and crumbling buildings.
Apr 26, 2024 · By 1900, approximately 5,000 of the 13,000 people recorded living in Cairo, Illinois were African American. In the early part of the 20th century, the lynching of William James took place in Cairo, an African American accused of the murder of Anna Pelly, a young white woman.
Dec 18, 2023 · Flood-prone Cairo (pronounced “Kay-row”), located at the far southern end of Illinois in a region of the state nicknamed “Egypt,” didn’t amount to much. After a visit in 1842, famed author Charles Dickens called it a “destestable morass,” a “breeding-place of fever, ague, and death.”
Cairo, city, seat (1860) of Alexander county, extreme southern Illinois, U.S. The city stands on a low-lying delta at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Bridges over both rivers connect the city with Kentucky (east) and Missouri (west).
Feb 17, 2012 · An industrial exodus and fall out from the civil rights movement are mostly to blame for the state of Cairo today. Two documentary film makers from England stumbled upon Cairo a little...
