With the nation’s sixth-largest population, Illinois is home to more than 12.6 million residents—about 9.5 million of them living in the Chicago metropolitan area. Outside of Chicagoland, most of the state is dedicated to agricultural use, producing some of the largest crops of soybeans and corn in the U.S. Here are a few glimpses of the landscape of Illinois and some of the wildlife and people calling it home.

On December 3, 1865, a group of Black Mississippians wrote to the state’s governor, demanding respect for their newly won freedom. “Now we are free,” they insisted, “we do not want to be hunted … All we ask is justice and to be treated like humane beings.” They recalled vividly “the yelping of bloodhounds and tareing of our fellow servants To pisces” by slave patrols, and called for an end to these violent abuses.

live in an alley
at the back of a lawmaker’s mind.A mind with no imaginationfor our reality, they say. With teeth
rowed like cigarettes, factory still,my mothers sweat through a week
of soil on their skin,
unconcerned with grace.One has grace and a gold tooth,
a tiny heart etched in the middle.One knows a key ingredient of beauty
is sorrow.Oven burns cross their wrists.
Fingers calloused from hot plates.

Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that international students attending universities that switch to online-only courses in the fall would be required to leave the United States. By threatening student visas, the Trump administration, which has been pushing to reopen businesses and schools despite the continuing pandemic, was widely seen as pressuring colleges to resume in-person classes.