Earlier this summer, someone made headlines—and a statement—by defacing the “Welcome to Alton” billboard with hate-filled messages targeting the town’s fearless, 6’3”, genderqueer, hard-hitting journalist, Cory Davenport, 36. It’s hard to imagine a progressive firebrand rattling this many cages in the region since 1836, when abolitionist publisher Elijah P. Lovejoy fled the slave state of Missouri for the free state of Illinois and set up shop in Alton. His printing press was dumped in the river the following year, and just months later, he was killed.
Great River Road “Welcome to Alton” sign vandalism covered-up on Saturday, July 19, 2025 (Enjoy Grafton Facebook photo)
Davenport’s own press, The Sunken Press, bears a name both literal and symbolic. He founded the outlet after his reporting proved too bold for more conventional local media.
“In 2019, the President of the Lewis and Clark Community College Board was shit-posting anti-Islamic, anti-LGBTQ, and some pretty pro-Confederacy shit on his public Facebook,” Davenport recalls. “He also wanted to save the bees, which was pretty cool, but the rest of it was ass. I should add ‘former president.’”
Cory Davenport. Courtesy of Cory Davenport
“Anyway, I brought it to the public’s attention, and the Center for American Islamic Relations got involved, as did a bunch of students. And the board’s next meeting turned into a protest. After that, I lost my office at Riverbender, all my phone calls would’ve been monitored, and I was no longer permitted to do investigations. I was put on notice that the kind of shit I liked getting up to would have consequences regardless of authenticity. It was probably the first time I had to choose the truth or comfort in my journalism career, and my stupid ass picked truth, and I’m still uncomfortable as hell.”
Davenport says he no longer has much animosity towards the Riverbender.
Since the community college episode, anonymous Facebook pages have cropped up to troll and trash him. When asked why he’s drawn so much ire, Davenport doesn’t flinch.
“I eschew social norms and the plight of maintaining decency to pursue the truth at all costs,” he says. “Once I find it, I have no qualms about its inconvenience. It’s like seeing someone poop in a grocery store, picking up the turd, and loudly yelling ‘You forgot this!’ as I chase the denizen out the door. People don’t like other people knowing what they did in such an antisocial fashion. The regular people of the world are also put off by having to face inconvenient and disturbing things as well. When you put that all together, it creates a sort of polarizing miasma in which folks who are up to violently antisocial behavior have to confront a giant pro-social man who just won’t die. But I’m a cocky dickhead about it because I watched too much WWE as a kid. And I know what makes the crowds jeer at my enemies.”
SEE ALSO: CHRIS ANDOE’S SUNKEN PRESS INTERVIEW
Davenport draws a through-line between those fleeing to Illinois during the Civil War and the wave of trans individuals doing so today in search of safety and acceptance.
“The amount of wonderful trans communities forming in Belleville and Alton is amazing,” he says. “It makes my stomach curdle when I see the hateful rhetoric, but I also block those folks immediately. These days, I know a lot of folks use my Facebook as a public forum, and the last thing I want is a bunch of bigots seeing our convos. So, I like going through news story comments and blocking people. The good news is, those bigots are usually inconsequential. And most of them have zero social impact and don’t even live around here.”
Despite the backlash, Davenport balks at being labeled a “fighter.”
“You aggressively push back against any LGBTQ bullying, for starters,” I told him. “You’re a fearless wrecking ball.”
“I mean, I gotta. I was raised Catholic and therefore had a lot of homophobia and transphobia to overcome,” he replies. “During the process of overcoming that in my teenage years and early 20s, I realized I myself didn’t exactly fit a gender binary, and it made me empathize more with people who could not rely on being a massive, confident masc man for their safety. Like, I think everyone wants to be known and accepted for the person they are, and I fucking hate it when people who can’t do that themselves create obstacles for others.”
Above all, Davenport has an infectious love for Alton. He’s a gregarious presence around town, and running into him at a local watering hole usually guarantees a wild, memorable night. His Facebook tagline says it best:
“I write all day, and I wrong all night.”
