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Uncovering the Truth:
What the Data Reveals
I note findings from the Unveiling Black Springfield's first year of data gathering. So far, my team and I have found:​
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1. Inequalities in the distribution of social support and healthcare. While the Springfield Clinic did build a new site on South Grand Avenue, the lack of public transportation, child care, grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, and mental health care hinder opportunities for maintaining job stability and economic mobility.​
2. Inequalities in the distribution of education. The city has been under a consent decree from the federal government since 1976, citing an extreme lack of Black teachers in a majority Black school district. The 186 School District has been unsuccessful in hiring and retaining Black teachers. White families have continued, in white flight, to relocate to the outskirts of Springfield and maintain white schools in those areas, away from the Black children in 186. Visits to one school in Ward 2 revealed a 101:1 Black teacher to Black student ratio, as 90% of the school's 220 children are Black, but only two Black full-time teachers are employed there, and one of the Black teachers is in fact a Teacher's Aid. Interviews were taken with the School Superintendent, the 186 Schools Chief Equity and School Improvement Officer, several current and former teachers, as well as parents.
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3. Inequalities in the provision of stable employment. The City of Springfield, the Springfield Office of Planning and Economic Development, and the Springfield/Sangamon Growth Alliance continue to ignore the possibilities of development in the only city ward with a majority of minoritized group members. Ward 2, was created by another federal consent decree in 1987 which found that the City of Springfield violated the Voting Rights Act and discriminated against Black voters. Since the decree, however, longtime Black citizens have remarked on the City's continued discrimination against Ward 2. Data reveals that the city used HUD funds for purposes other than to reduce blight in the Ward.
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Data also shows that the City refused to provide documents accounting for its lack of hiring Black workers for city-contracted jobs, of hiring Black owned businesses, or of providing the same means of social support for Black entities that the City would provide for White owned businesses and White wards or neighborhoods. This lack of industry in Ward 2 has hampered job stability for Ward 2 residents and access to income. Other data reveals that, though Mayor Misty Buscher signed a contract with the State of Illinois for $3M to be used for police equipment and community development projects in Ward 2, the mayor and police refused to follow through on the community development pieces until Ward 2 Alderman Shawn Gregory and citizens continued to pressure them to do so. In fact, Alderman Gregory had to ask the State for three extensions of the contract to allow the City of Springfield to initiate these community projects with Black non-profit organizations. Later, at a Massey Commission meeting of the Economic Disparities and Service Accessibility Workgroup, one of the non-profit organizations involved in this project revealed that, as the contract called
for funds to be reimbursed, the City of Springfield has taken up to eight (8) months to reimburse the Black organizations for their projects in the Black community. This type of slow reimbursement hinders low-income Black organizations from maintaining their employee base, and from doing their work to strengthen Black and low-income youth and communities.
Dr. Lesa Johnson
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Illinois Springfield
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
​​From Data to Action in Challenging Discriminatory Police Practices
Additional data confirms inequalities by race in police treatment, as the ACLU of Illinois released data that the Springfield Police Department stops Black drivers at 5.7 times the stops they make for White drivers. We engaged with the ACLU, the Springfield Police Department, and the Mayor of Springfield, Misty Buscher in October of 2024, when the results were first published. We also spoke about this in City Council and made the public aware of the findings. During the meeting that I attended, Springfield Police leadership were asked what data they had which prompted them to stop Black people at such a higher rate than White people. The leadership said that they receive calls from City Council members on where to surveil. I addressed City Council on this point on October 29, 2024, as I was asked to do by the Springfield ACLU. Subsequently, the ACLU agreed to engage in regular talks with the Springfield Police Department to find solutions to the racially discriminatory practices. The ACLU also invited me to join the organization so that I could attend future meetings, which I did in February of 2025. At the March 2025 ACLU meeting, we were informed that the Springfield Police Department had requested that I NOT be in attendance at these meetings, reasoning that the meetings were not appropriate for "activists."​
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The Springfield Police Department also employs a "Street Crimes" unit, which surveils Ward 2 quite heavily. Citizens call this unit the "Jump Out Boys." In informal interviews, we find that this unit of only four officers is said to stop Black drivers and yank, or forcefully pull, citizens out of their cars while continuing other means to harass and intimidate Black citizens in Ward 2, such as searches without warrants and placing parents into police cars for questioning while leaving their children in the street without supervision.
​We also found a unique difference in the ways that community organizations converse with Springfield Police. After
a Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy murdered Sonya Massey, I was invited to a meeting between the local NAACP, the Chief of Springfield Police, and several SPD lieutenants. This was actually a formerly scheduled meeting, as the NAACP meets with the SPD quarterly. The President of the NAACP opened the meeting by apologizing to Chief Scarlett, asserting that Springfield Black residents do not know the difference between the Sheriff’s Department and the Springfield Police Department. Other NAACP leaders maintained this conciliatory and apologetic stance with the police, which seems counter to the National NAACP’s stance on police brutality. Three attendants (including me), however, maintained a position that held the SPD more accountable, raising the issue of distrust with the police because of the behavior of the “Jump Out Boys,” and hyper surveillance in Black neighborhoods, and other conditions that lead to community mistrust of the police, regardless of which department they are from. However, in several public meetings, current NAACP leadership continue to maintain a position which uplifts a “Ten Point Promise” that all Springfield area police chiefs have signed, and blames Black citizens rather than holding the police accountable.
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