Protests Against Racism Come To Small IL Towns As Well

About 500 participants marched around Monticello's downtown business district Saturday during a “Demonstration for Justice and Peace.”

MONTICELLO – Peaceful protests against racism and police brutality not only took place Saturday in cities like Chicago and Champaign, but also in small Illinois towns like Monticello. 

The Piatt County Journal-Republican reports 500 people gathered in downtown Monticello on Saturday. The community of 5,500 sits along I-72 in Piatt County. 

Monticello High School graduate Melina Thompson speaks to a crowd of 500 that gathered for a “Demonstration for Justice and Peace” in Monticello on Saturday.

Demonstrators held signs like “Black Lives Matter” and also kneeled during the hourlong event called the “Demonstration for Justice And Peace.”  It was one of hundreds of protests held around the world nearly two weeks after George Floyd, a black man, died after a white officer pressed a knee on his neck for several minutes.

Current and former students of Monticello High School also spoke, including Vinnie Strack, who now lives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

“We must do more,” said Strack. “Sometimes we need to have the hard conversation to get on the right path. Today, for this community, I recognize this is a hard conversation, but its time we get on that right path.”

A conservative group called Central Illinois Citizens For Freedom asked for people to attend the event especially if they had concealed carry permits or owned motorcycles. In their post, they stated, “we already know that protests turn into riots. We cannot allow out-of-town protesters to destroy our historic hamlet.” No clashes were reported.

Among other peaceful small Illinois city gatherings on Saturday, a few hundred protesters gathered at the Tazewell County Courthouse in Pekin, according to Peoria Public Radio.

The Southern Illinoisan reported a Black Lives Matter protest in Sparta, a community of 4,300 in Randolph County. Nearly one hundred people marched from the city’s police department to the high school.

Monticello High School graduate Vinnie Strack, who now lives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, speaks to a crowd of 500 that gathered for a “Demonstration for Justice and Peace” in Monticello on Saturday.

Reginald Hardwick

Reginald Hardwick is the News & Public Affairs Director at Illinois Public Media. He oversees daily newscasts and online stories. He also manages The 21st Show, a live, weekday talk show that airs on 7 NPR stations throughout Illinois. He is the executive producer of IPM's annual environmental TV special "State of Change." And he is the co-creator of Illinois Soul, IPM's Black-focused audio service that launched in February 2024. Before arriving at IPM in 2019, he served as News Director at WKAR in East Lansing and spent 17 years as a TV news producer and manager at KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth. Reginald is the recipient of three Edward R. Murrow regional awards, seven regional Emmy awards, and multiple honors from the National Association of Black Journalists. Born in Vietnam, Reginald grew up in Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. Email: rh14@illinois.edu Twitter: @RNewsWILL