Timeline: 1960

The census recorded 6,132 Black residents in Champaign County.

The Committee for Liberal Action (CLA) formed to “fight student and administration apathy.” The group placed stickers protesting racial discrimination in store windows and staged a sit-in at Walgreens.

Raymond Eugene Suggs was hired by the Champaign-Urbana Courier as a part-time staff photographer, the first and, for many years, the only African American to hold such a staff position on either of the two daily newspapers in the community until the paper folded in 1979. He covered many community and sporting events, and most events in the Black community for the paper.

Early 1960s: Dr. Ellis Subdivision was built. It was the third single family subdivision created for African American in Champaign-Urbana. It was named after Dr. Henry D. Ellis, the second Black doctor to practice in the twin cities.