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Cairo, Ill.

Cairo, Ill., is often said to be where the North ends and the South begins, a description freighted with meaning beyond geography. Cairo, President-elect Barack Obama wrote in his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” marks the “confluence of the free and the enslaved, the world of Huck and the world of Jim.” “He has been here and he has seen Cairo,” town librarian Monica Smith said of Obama. “He knows the shape we are in.”

Cairo, Ill., is often said to be where the North ends and the South begins, a description freighted with meaning beyond geography. Cairo, President-elect Barack Obama wrote in his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” marks the “confluence of the free and the enslaved, the world of Huck and the world of Jim.” “He has been here and he has seen Cairo,” town librarian Monica Smith said of Obama. “He knows the shape we are in.”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Road to the inauguration: Progress has bypassed Cairo, Ill., where the mighty Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge. But town leaders hope the new president can help get things flowing again.

Cairo, Ill.

A man rides a bicycle down Commercial Avenue, once the main business district in downtown Cairo. Abandoned buildings run for blocks.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

Darrell Shemwell’s barbecue restaurant is one of the few thriving businesses in Cairo. “I don’t understand it,” Shemwell said. “We’ve got rivers, we’ve got rail ... we’ve got history. It’s really just pathetic that we are at such an ideal spot and can’t get any growth.”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

Darrell Shemwell’s restaurant.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Cairo, Ill.

“We could have some productive citizens here,” said Mayor Judson Childs, a Cairo native who himself was compelled to pursue a career elsewhere. “That’s why I am dying to really get something here where people don’t have to do like I did. There are too many kids walking across the stage, getting their diplomas, and the Army recruiter is there, waiting to take them to basic training the next day.”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

Preston Ewing Jr., treasurer and unofficial historian in Cairo, with a map of the levee system surrounding the town, which sits at a point where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge. Ewing said the town’s decline became inevitable after World War II as long-haul trucking and air freight began to overtake commercial river traffic.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

Barbara Wilson, editor of the town’s newspaper.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

Town librarian Monica Smith.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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Cairo, Ill.

The Cairo library.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

The decommissioned Southern Medical Center. Residents were happy that the federal government cleaned up the asbestos and boarded up the lower-level doors and windows, warding off vagrants. Compared with much of the town’s wreckage, the bones of the old hospital seem fairly benign.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

There is hope that the president-elect, a former Illinois senator, can help turn the town around.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Cairo, Ill.

The streets of Cairo.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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