Colp, IL

Colp is a village in Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The 2020 census counted 168 residents. A mining town, it had segregated schools including a high school for African Americans in Herrin Township that won a state championship in 1941. Colp competed on the Southern Illinois Conference of Colored Schools. In Colp, history and present-day settings sit close enough to belong to the same local picture. The map tells the story in Colp, where earlier chapters remain visible in current streets, buildings, and gathering places. The school closed in 1953 in the wake of integration. Colp was established in the early 1900s and named for John Colp, whose mining company opened a mine in the area in 1901. The Illinois Central Railroad extended a line to the mine in 1904.