For the first time Friday, April 24, Skokie will join Evanston and stand against racism at several locations throughout the village.
Stand Against Racism was created to build community among those who work for racial justice and to raise awareness about the negative impact of institutional and structural racism, according to YWCA USA.
It’s a nation-wide event with more than 2,000 organizations participating, according to the YWCA.
Individuals and groups will stand together from 10:25 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. in Skokie and from 12:30 p.m. to 12:55 p.m. in Evanston on Friday.
In Skokie, the public can stand with village staff and officials, students, community business leaders and others on the south side of Oakton Street through downtown Skokie as part of Stand Against Racism.
Participants also will stand on the west side of Gross Point Road from Oakton Street north and on the north side of Golf Road from Lawler Avenue east to Gross Point Road.
Skokie’s Human Relations Commission has worked with the YWCA Evanston/North Shore to expand Stand Against Racism. This is the eighth Stand Against Racism sponsored by the national YWCA.
Stand Against Racism also marks the closing of Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township, which has taken a community-wide look at race through myriad programs since the start of the year.
While Coming Together traditionally explores only one culture every year, this year it examined race in general to align with a provocative exhibition on race at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and co-sponsored by Evanston YWCA/North Shore.
Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen this week proclaimed April 24 Stand Against Racism Day in the village. The proclamation pays tribute to the work of YWCA Evanston/North Shore, and Van Dusen also praised the work of Skokie’s Human Relations Commission.
“We have a history in the village of strong race relations,” Van Dusen said.
Van Dusen noted that Skokie was the first village in the state to create a human relations commission and to have an open housing ordinance.
For more information about Stand Against Racism in Skokie, call the village’s Human Services Division at (847) 933-8208. For more information about Stand Against Racism, access http://www.ywca.org.
Twitter: @SKReview_Mike
