My Favorite Member of Congress is Gone But Not Forgotten: What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me

I grew up in New Baden, Illinois in the 1950s and 60s. New Baden is a small town, at the time somewhere between 1500 and 2000 people. New Baden literally straddles the border between Clinton and St. Clair counties, about 30 some miles east of St. Louis. Most of New Baden is in Clinton County, and it is generally considered to be in Clinton County. St. Clair County is the infamous "metro-east" area represented for years by the late Congressional powerhouse Mel Price, including the now almost entirely black city of E. St. Louis, the hometown of my dad.

Clinton County, however, is a county of small towns about every five miles--the county seat is Carlyle, population maybe 5,000 and home of the Carlyle Lake reservoir, the largest in Illinois. It is a unique county in that it is heavily settled by German-Catholic farmers. These very serious and competent people, with good land and a favorable climate, were able to establish and keep family farms over many generations. The small towns, ranging in size from several hundred to several thousand, are characterized by large, ornate catholic churches, with very tall steeples. The one in New Baden, St. George, looks like some kind of gothic cathedral. We grew up distinguishing between the "publics" and the "catholics." I was a public.

Clinton County in general had very little racial diversity at that time. (Still doesn't) No, Illinois didn't have "Jim Crow" outwardly. I didn't grow up with separate water fountains, bathrooms, counters, and the such. No, I would only encounter that on my first trip to Florida to visit my grandmother in 1962. That blatant racial prejudice was pretty shocking to me. I was much more used to a quieter, subtle kind where you try to pretend that you weren't being prejudiced.

In our region there were a handful of African-Americans in a few of the towns, but most didn't have any. New Baden sure didn't. There were all kinds of whispers about black people amongst us kids growing up. Even though there was Scott AFB nearby, which is a major military installation, and we often got transient military families coming through our schools, they were always white. We always thought that if a black family tried to move into New Baden, that they would get the message real quick they weren't welcome. That may have happened a time or two--I seem to recall it.

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