America’s oldest Black town is in Illinois — and it’s dying. But the fight has begun to save it. скачать в хорошем качестве

America’s oldest Black town is in Illinois — and it’s dying. But the fight has begun to save it.

Brooklyn, Illinois, is considered to be one of the country's first Black settlements, the first majority-Black town in America to incorporate and the oldest such-town still in existence today. But nearly 200 years after its founding, the tiny town nestled on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River across from St. Louis is facing extinction. Now, a disparate group has coalesced around what many consider to be the best — and possibly last — chance at breathing new life into the historic community. Brooklyn native Prince Wells III shared his father’s home movies from the early 1960s with Tribune photographer E. Jason Wambsgans. Here's a look inside the push to save Brooklyn: trib.al/dJ3kw8O