A nearly deserted town has been called “the place destroyed by racism,” with its crumbling, post-apocalyptic remains resembling “something out of the Walking Dead.” Cairo, a port settlement where the Mississippi River meets the Ohio River, once flourished on the steamboat trade during the 1800s. Today, its once-bustling city centre stands hauntingly vacant, with brick and plywood-boarded windows.
Population Crash and Racial History
In the 1920s, over 15,000 people called Cairo home; that figure has now fallen to less than 1,500. The town's ugly history of racism, notorious for lynchings in the early 1900s, contributed to its decline. The bigotry and violence eventually drove people out, and the decay that began in “uptown” Cairo has spread into residential areas.
While economic hardship played a crucial part in Cairo's dilapidated condition, its infamous legacy of racial conflict made matters worse. After the US Civil War, many previously enslaved individuals were transported to Cairo, coinciding with the tail-end of the steamboat period when employment began to dwindle.
Escalating Violence and Decline
Residents viewed this as a danger and remained antagonistic toward the Black community throughout the 1900s. Tensions intensified as shipping and ferry industries declined, finally exploding in 1909. A Black man named William 'Froggie' James was accused of raping and murdering Anna Pelley, a 24-year-old white woman, despite little evidence. Cairo's sheriff hid James in nearby woodland, but a mob hauled him through the streets before placing a noose around his neck.
From that moment, racial violence escalated, and by the late 1930s, Cairo recorded the state's highest murder rate. This, combined with the town's susceptibility to catastrophic flooding, drove many residents away, depleting its population, workforce, and resources, transforming it into the ghost town it remains today.
On the YouTube channel Here to There, the presenter who investigated Cairo said: “It's no wonder so many chose to leave. Crime runs rampant here and just walking through the streets resembles something out of the Walking Dead.”
