Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the US state of Illinois that connects St. Louis, Missouri, to the Chicago metropolitan area. It enters the state from Missouri near East St. Louis, Illinois, and runs to U.S. Route 41 near Downtown Chicago, where the highway ends, a distance of 294.38 miles (473.76 km). The road also runs through the Illinois cities of Springfield, Bloomington, and Joliet. The section in Cook County is officially named the Stevenson Expressway, and in DuPage County its officially named the Joliet Freeway or the Will Rogers Freeway. The section from the south suburbs of Chicago to the area near Pontiac is officially named the Barack Obama Presidential Expressway after the 44th President, Barack Obama, who launched his political career from Illinois.

East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It is directly across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, Missouri, and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro East region of Southern Illinois. Once a bustling industrial center, like many cities in the Rust Belt, East St. Louis was severely affected by the loss of jobs due to the flight of the population to the suburbs during the riots of the late 1960s. In 1950, East St. Louis was the fourth-largest city in Illinois when its population peaked at 82,366. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,469, less than one-quarter of the 1950 census and a decline of almost one third since 2010.