Race, Inequality and Policing was the topic of a Town Hall Meeting last night at Manual High School.
About 200 people attended the Illinois Central College event. Much of the panelist conversation was about the recent 24/7 Wall Street ranking that placed Peoria "worst in the nation" for African American life.
Peoria City Councilwoman Denise Moore represents zip code 61605, which has one of the highest poverty rates in the state. She says young adults have to get involved to improve the situation.
“We as a community, folks in this meeting need to come out and join the NAACP, and get busy, joining the Urban League and get busy, join the Southside Community United for Change which is an neighborhood entrenched organization and then get busy,” Moore said.
Councilwoman Moore says she can help people make their concerns known, but residents should stand up alongside her because that's how things will change.
Some of the factors that earned Peoria the worst ranking in the country for black people are the black median income in less than half that for white residents.
The black unemployment rate is also three times higher than it is for white people.