Racial unrest in Cairo, Illinois
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. Over the next several years, fire bombings, racially charged boycotts and shootouts were common place in Cairo, with 170 nights of gunfire reported in 1969 alone. The unrest resulted in the mass depopulation of Cairo to the point of it being a near ghost town. Background. Cairo's turbulent history of race relations is often traced back  to the lynching of black resident William James. In 1900, Cairo had a population of nearly 13,000. Of that total, approximately 5,000 residents were African-American. In 1900, this was an unusually high black population for a town of Cairo's size, and five percent of all black residents of the state of Illinois resided here. As a result of the large black population in a town with a traditionally southern white heritage, race relations were already strained by 1900. On the night of November 11, 1909, two men were lynched. The first man lynched was a black man named  William James, who was allegedly responsible for the murder of Anna Pelly, a young white woman killed three days earlier. The second man lynched was a white man named Henry Salzner, who had allegedly murdered his wife in the previous August. The decline of the steamboat industry in the early 20th century hurt Cairo's economy significantly. By the time of unrest in the 1960s, the unemployment rate of Cairo was more than twice the national average and poverty was widespread among both blacks and whites in the city. 1967 riot. The Cairo riot of 1967 was one of 159  race riots that swept cities in the United States during the "Long Hot Summer of 1967". This riot began on July 17, 1967, and persisted through three days of riots and protests. The incident began with the alleged jailhouse suicide of Private Robert Hunt, a young African-American soldier on leave in his hometown of Cairo. Police said Hunt hanged himself with his T-shirt, but Cairo's African-American residents challenged that story. The death touched off three days of riots and protests, followed by a seven-year renewal of civil rights activities in the city. Several shootouts occurred  throughout the city and at least six firebombings occurred. Three stores and a warehouse were burned down and a stabbing also occurred. Aftermath. The unrest resulted in a mass exodus from Cairo, which was already experiencing population decline before the unrest began. The population of Cairo has declined from 9,348 in 1960 to approximately 2,359 in 2016. The peak population was 15,203 in 1920.