Decatur ( ) is the largest city in Macon County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 70,522. It is the 17th-most populous city in Illinois and the "fastest shrinking city" in Illinois. Decatur has an economy based on industrial and agricultural commodity processing and production. The city is home to Millikin University and Richland Community College.
History
19th century
The city is named after War of 1812 naval hero Stephen Decatur. The Potawatomi Trail of Death passed through the city in 1838. Post No. 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic was founded as a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in Decatur on April 6, 1866.
Decatur was the first home in Illinois of Abraham Lincoln, who settled just west of Decatur with his family in 1830. A historical marker in Decatur claims that, at the age of 21, Lincoln gave his first political speech in Decatur, defending state Whig party leaders. As a lawyer on the 8th Judicial Circuit, Lincoln made frequent stops in Decatur, and argued five cases in the log courthouse that stood on the corner of Main & Main Streets. The original courthouse is now on the grounds of the Macon County Historical Museum on North Fork Road. John Hanks, first cousin of Abraham Lincoln, lived in Decatur.
On May 9 and 10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur. At this convention, Lincoln received his first endorsement for President of the United States as "The Railsplitter Candidate". In commemoration of Lincoln's bicentennial, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel on June 6 and 7, 2008.
20th century
The first modern fly-destruction device (fly swatter) was invented in 1900 by Robert R. Montgomery, an entrepreneur based in Decatur, Ill. Montgomery was issued Patent No. 640,790 for the Fly-Killer, a "cheap device of unusual elasticity and durability" made of wire netting, "preferably oblong," attached to a handle.
For much of the 20th century, the city was known as "The Soybean Capital of the World" owing to its being the location of the headquarters of A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company, a major grain processor in the 1920s, which popularized the use of soybeans to produce products for human consumption such as oil, meal and flour. At one time, over a third of all the soybeans grown in the world were processed in Decatur, Illinois. In 1955 a group of Decatur businessmen founded the Soy Capital Bank to trade on the nickname.
Decatur was awarded the All-America City Award in 1960, one of eleven cities honored that year. Decatur is an affiliate of the U.S. Main Street program, in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
On July 19, 1974, a tanker car containing isobutane collided with a boxcar in the Norfolk & Western railroad yard in the East End of Decatur. The resulting explosion killed seven people, injured 349, and caused $18 million in property damage including extensive damage to nearby Lakeview High School.Interstate Commerce , Report of the Accident Investigation on the Norkfolk And Western Railway, Decatur, IL - NTSB at ROSAP
On April 18 and 19, 1996, the city was hit by tornadoes. On April 18, an F1 tornado hit the city's southeast side, followed by an F3 tornado the following evening on the northwest side. That same tornado then skipped twice, hitting businesses on the northeast side. The two storms totaled approximately $10.5 million in property damage.
A new branding effort for Decatur and Macon County was unveiled in 2015, Limitless Decatur. The marketing strategy intended to attract and retain business and residents by promoting the Decatur area as modern and progressive with opportunities to live, work, and develop.
Jesse Jackson protest In November 1999, Decatur was brought into the national news when Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition protested the two-year expulsion of seven African American students who had been involved in a serious fight at an Eisenhower High School football game under a recently enacted "zero tolerance" policy. Six of the students were arrested but not charged after the fracas. Four were later charged as adults with mob action, a felony. Jesse Jackson intervened in the incident, bringing the controversy to national attention, protesting both the severity and length of the punishment and also alleging racial bias (schools in Decatur in 1999 had an enrollment that was about 44 percent black, while five of the six Decatur students expelled in the prior year were black).Chicago Tribune: "Deadlock In Decatur: Teens Charged In Stadium Fistfight Jackson Challenges Expulsions In Court, Vows New Showdown" November 10, 1999New York Times: "7 Students Charged in a Brawl That Divides Decatur, Ill." November 10, 1999 Jackson pointed out he was invited by the students' parents and that he spoke with them, the kids, ministers and teachers before protesting the zero-tolerance severity of the punishment: "No one can survive zero tolerance," Jackson said. "We all need mercy and grace."The Bloomington Pantagraph: "Decatur's scars still show decade after expulsions" November 23, 1999
Outside of Decatur, public support was largely against the School Board's decision but changed once a videotape of the incident surfaced filmed by a parent at the game. Broadcast on national TV news, it showed a melee that swept through one end of the grandstands, with kicking and punching, as some of the fighters tumbled over the rails. The game was stopped and players gawked at the fighting in the bleachers. Ed Boehm, the principal at MacArthur High School who attended the game, described it as a riot: "I feared for the safety of our people -- my parents, my students," Boehm said, referring to the crowd in the bleachers. "You had people pushed through bars, people covering little children so they wouldn't get hurt. It was violent."New Tork Times: "7 Students Charged in a Brawl That Divides Decatur, Ill." November 10, 1999 Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition organized marches that included hundreds of people bused in from outside the area, criticizing the school board for what Jackson said was unfairly harsh treatment of the boys over a fight. Jackson was arrested and detained briefly; however, charges were later dropped.CNN: "Jesse Jackson arrested in Illinois high school protest" November 16, 1999 School officials say the students involved in the fighting were known as truants, described three of them as "third-year freshmen", and noted that the seven students had missed a combined 350 days of high school.
The issue dissipated when the school board reduced the original expulsions from two years to one year and agreed to let the students earn credit while attending an alternative school.Chicago Tribune: "Decatur Debate Turns Into 3-ring Act " November 15, 1999
The students involved in the fight have since taken different paths in life: one having been sentenced to state prison for 10 years for a 2004 felony drug conviction; another having finished college (helped by a Rainbow PUSH scholarship); another working as a butcher; and a fourth being arrested for home invasion in 2009.BET: "Decatur's Scars Still Show Decade After Expulsions" November 23, 1999 Jesse Jackson was criticized for turning what could have been a legitimate criticism/discussion of the effects of "zero tolerance" policies into national debate by attempting to present the seven youths as victims of bigotry.The Economist: "Jesse Jackson's wrong target" November 25, 1999
Corporate exits and population loss
In 2014, ADM moved its upper corporate management out of Decatur and established the new ADM World Headquarters in downtown Chicago. Following the ADM corporate exit, Decatur became listed by the United States Census Bureau as number 3 in "The 15 Fastest-Declining Large Cities" which showed a 7.1% population loss of (-5,376) from 2010 to 2019.
The Japanese corporation Bridgestone owns Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, which operated a large tire factory here. Firestone's Decatur plant was closed in December 2001 amid a tire failure controversy. All 1,500 employees were laid off. Firestone cited a decline in consumer demand for Firestone tires and the age of the Decatur plant as the reasons for closing that facility.
Geography The USGS Domestic GeoNames resource has two listings for Decatur: "City of Decatur", which is a Civil-class designation, and "Decatur", which is a Populated Place designation. The two listings have slightly different coordinate centroids; the "City of Decatur" centroid is located at , while the "Decatur" centroid is at . Decatur is 150 miles southwest of Chicago, 40 miles east of Springfield, the state capital, and 110 miles northeast of St. Louis.
According to the 2010 census, the city consisted of of land and of water, amounting to a total area of , consisting of 90% land and 10% water. Lakes include Lake Decatur, an 11 km2 reservoir formed in 1923 by the damming of the Sangamon River.
The Decatur Metropolitan Statistical Area (population 109,900) includes surrounding towns of Argenta, Boody, Blue Mound, Elwin, Forsyth, Harristown, Long Creek, Macon, Maroa, Mount Zion, Niantic, Oakley, Oreana, and Warrensburg.
Neighborhoods On July 19, 1999, the Department of Community Development prepared a map of the official neighborhoods of Decatur, used for planning and statistical purposes. Decatur has 71 official neighborhoods.
Climate Decatur has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa).
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Decatur city, Illinois Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)62,99353,74944,37176.95%70.61%62.92%Black or African American alone (NH)15,84617,60018,60619.36%23.12%26.38%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1241551240.15%0.20%0.18%Asian alone (NH)5366959100.65%0.91%1.29%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)1318220.02%0.02%0.03%Other race alone (NH)1101283270.13%0.17%0.46%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)1,2602,1273,9951.54%2.79%5.66%Hispanic or Latino (any race)9781,6502,1671.19%2.17%3.07%Total81,86076,12270,522100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Decatur had a population of 70,522 and 31,180 households.
The median age was 40.2 years. 21.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 20.0% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 90.0 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 85.9 males age 18 and over.
99.3% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.7% lived in rural areas.
Of the 31,180 households, 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 32.0% were married-couple households, 22.6% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 37.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 38.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average family size was 3.00 persons.
There were 35,430 housing units, of which 12.0% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.8%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 44,894 63.7% Black or African American 18,744 26.6% American Indian and Alaska Native 174 0.2% Asian 913 1.3% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 27 0.0% Some other race 1,025 1.5% Two or more races 4,745 6.7%
2010 census