President Joe Biden on Friday designated the site of a 1908 race riot in Illinois a national monument.
Biden signed a proclamation marking the 116th anniversary of the Springfield riot in which a mob of white residents attacked Black-owned businesses. The rioters looted and burned not only businesses but homes, lynching two Black men in the process.
The new monument “will tell the story of a horrific attack by a white mob on a Black community that was representative of the racism, intimidation, and violence that Black Americans experienced across the country,” the White House said in a statement.
The riot began after a crowd of white people gathered outside the Sangamon County Jail to demand that 17-year-old Joe James and 36-year-old George Richardson be released so the mob could lynch them. James and Richardson ― who were Black ― had been accused of assaulting or attempting to assault a white woman.
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One of their white accusers later recanted. But when James and Richardson were moved to a jail farther away, the mob attacked the Black community in violence that would last through the weekend.
In this photo from March 22, 2023, sculptures representing charred chimneys rising from the rubble of burned-out buildings make up a memorial for the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois.
John O’Connor via Associated Press
In the ensuing attacks, Black men Scott Burton and William Donnegan were lynched and dozens of businesses were looted or vandalized. Donnegan had worked on the Underground Railroad to free enslaved people, and even made shoes for President Abraham Lincoln.
“Over 100 years ago this week, a mob not far from Lincoln’s home unleashed a race riot in Springfield and — that literally shocked the conscience of the nation,” Biden said Friday. “A lot of people forgot it. … We can’t let these things fade.”
The incident led to the founding of the NAACP civil rights organization, according to the National Park Service.
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Springfield was the site of a recent killing of an unarmed Black woman by law enforcement. Sean Grayson, a former officer with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, faces three counts of murder in the fatal shooting of 36-year-old Sonya Massey in July.
Body-camera video shows Grayson yelling at Massey ― who had called 911 to report a possible prowler at her home ― over moving a pot of water from the stove just moments before shooting her.
“This fucking bitch is crazy,” Grayson could be heard telling other officers after shooting Massey.
Donnegan ― the man who was lynched in 1908 ― was reportedly an ancestor of Massey’s.
In 2022, HuffPost first reported that Aaron Paul Nichols, a former Springfield Police Department officer, had left the force after white supremacist social media posts surfaced online.
Illinois has seen more tornadoes in 2026 than in any year on record.
Following several more tornadoes confirmed this week across the state, Illinois has recorded 143 tornadoes so far in 2026, beating the previous record of 142 tornadoes set in 2024. With reliable records dating back to 1950, Illinois averages just 54 tornadoes per year. But in recent years, the state has experienced many more:
2023: 121
2024: 142
2025: 126
2026: 143 and counting
Unlike 2024, when a record two-day tornado outbreak accounted for a large share of the year’s tornadoes, the activity in 2026 has been spread out across several months.
On Thursday, June 11, a tornado outbreak brought at least 21 confirmed tornadoes to northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, 13 of them in Illinois. Two tornadoes that day — in Streator, Illinois, and Hebron, Indiana — reached rare EF-3 intensity, with winds over 135 miles per hour. Numerous injuries were reported from the storms, but there were no fatalities.
Confirmed tornadoes from June 11:
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Long Point to Streator, IL: EF-3
Wenona/Osage Township, IL: EF-1
Graymont to Dwight, IL: EF-1
Lee, IL: EF-U
Harpster to Elliott, IL: EF-0
Pembroke Township (Leesville), IL: EF-U
St. John to Schererville, IN: EF-0
Paxton/Loda, IL: EF-1
Merrillville to Hobart, IN: EF-2
Ludlow, IL: EF-1
Cedar Lake, IN: EF-0
Schneider to Hebron, IN: EF-0
Watseka, IL: EF-0
Hebron to Kouts, IN: EF-3
Wellington/Prairie Green Township, IL: EF-1
Bartlett, IL: EF-1
Boswell to Atkinson, IN: EF-1
Ade to Mount Ayr, IN: EF-0
Naperville to Lisle, IL: EF-0
Hickory Hills to Garfield Ridge: EF-2
Morocco, IN: EF-0
Though most of the Chicago area dodged severe weather from storms this week, the National Weather Service confirmed a brief tornado touchdown Wednesday night in Lake County near Grayslake. The EF-0 tornado had estimated winds of 80 miles per hour and was on the ground for about a quarter-mile. Damage consisted of several downed or split trees and sporadic minor roof damage along a narrow corridor in the Saddlebrook Farms subdivision.
Four more tornadoes were confirmed Wednesday in western and central Illinois. NWS crews are still surveying damage in central Illinois, and more tornadoes may be added to the count in the coming days.
With 143 tornadoes so far this year, Illinois leads the nation in tornado count for the third time in the last four years — a remarkable statistic for a state not typically thought of as being in Tornado Alley.
The recent increase in tornado activity across Illinois and the Midwest fits research showing a shift in tornado-favorable environments away from parts of the traditional Plains Tornado Alley and farther east into the Midwest and South. Climate change is one likely factor, as warming temperatures are expected to make the Plains hotter and drier overall, shifting tornado ingredients eastward toward the Mississippi River.
BEECHER CITY, Ill. (WAND) – Farms were damaged in Effingham County Wednesday evening when a powerful storm swept through at around 8 p.m.
The McKay Farm in Beecher City was heavily damaged when the rapidly moving storm hit.
“Two buildings were totally destroyed,” Dan McKay told WAND News on Thursday. “We’ve got five grain bins and they’re all damaged.”
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The buildings collapsed onto farm equipment and a semi that were parked in the structures. A utility pole was snapped and ripped out of the ground.
In nearby Shumway, another farm was hit. A barn collapsed, with a grain bin being ripped apart and debris traveling several hundred feet through a nearby corn field. A house on the property was also damaged.
