Brooklyn, is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Brooklyn had a population of 649. Located two miles north of East St. Louis, Illinois and three miles northeast of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, it is the oldest majority-Black incorporated town in the United States, founded by freed and fugitive slaves and incorporated in 1873. Its motto is "Founded by Chance, Sustained by Courage."