For Black Voters, Local Elections Are a Matter of Life and Death

Just outside of Democratic Chicago, where I live, it’s Trumpland

Voters cast their ballots at the polling place in downtown Chicago, Illinois on April 2, 2019. Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty

There’s a saying in Illinois, among Black people of a certain age: Once you get 50 miles south of Chicago, you might as well be in Mississippi. My little hometown of Joliet sits just barely inside that 50-mile hot zone, and like all border cities…