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Wednesday, April 3, 7-8pm: Todd Maxman presents the history of Civil Rights and Social Justice on the North Shore, at Wilmette Public Library Auditorium

Todd Maxman, New Trier social studies teacher, presented his research on a number of topics he studied during his sabbatical year. Some of Todd's students will present their own work using some of his research to do their own investigative and creative work on these topics.

Todd's students presented their own artwork inspired by images from historic New Trier yearbooks and letters to the school written by LGBTQIA+ students about their experiences. The artwork is currently on display at the Unitarian Church of Evanston.

Presented in collaboration with League of Women Voters of Wilmette and HEROS.

Saturday, April 27 - Walk/Roll the Redline (in-person, Evanston)

On Saturday, April 27th, 2024, from 2:00-4:30 pm, our community will gather in Twiggs Park, Evanston then walk a route through Evanston's 5th ward to raise funds, awareness, and activation for housing justice in our communities.

Background on redlining and info on the event:

Redlining was a historical practice where officials drew maps in red around neighborhoods of color and denied housing investment there. This discriminatory practice caused segregation and disinvestment in Evanston’s 5th ward that still impacts us today, decades after redlining was made illegal with the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.

At our April Fair Housing Month community event, participants will walk, roll, or stroll along an educational route through Evanston's 5th ward to learn the impact discriminatory housing policies had on our community and how they continue to show up in harmful new ways. Educational displays along the route will also celebrate Black Evanstonians' contributions to our community, highlight local Black-owned businesses, and demonstrate ways to take action for housing justice today.

Your generosity supports our mission to:
- Stand up for people experiencing housing discrimination

- Increase housing accessibility

- Help neighbors keep their stable homes and prevent homelessness

- Advocate for local housing justice

- Create communities we can all call home

As a mission, Open Communities works to eradicate housing discrimination and unjust practices that perpetuate segregation and inequity. We foster thriving, inclusive communities through fair housing enforcement, housing counseling, education, outreach, and advocacy.

Sunday, December  10:  Native American and Indigeneous documentaries

1. Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017, 1h43m) features Robby Robertson, the multi-talented leader of The Band, and composer of the Killers of the Flower Moon soundtrack. The documentary is available on Netflix and Prime Video.

2. PBS series America ReFramed includes the episode "Town Destroyer" (2022) "probes a passionate dispute over historic murals at a public high school depicting the life of George Washington."

3. The "Without a Whisper" (2020, 26m) documentary explores "the untold story of how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists in their fight for freedom and equality."

From the New York Times book review:  

In Matthew Desmond’s ‘Poverty, by America,’ the Culprit Is Us

The new book by the sociologist and author of “Evicted” examines the persistence of want in the wealthy United States, finding that keeping some citizens poor serves the interests of many...“Poverty, by America” is a compact jeremiad on the persistence of extreme want in a nation of extraordinary wealth, a distillation into argument form of the message embedded within the narrative of “Evicted.” And the central claim of that argument is that the endurance of poverty in the United States is the product not only of larger shifts such as deindustrialization and family dissolution, but of choices and actions by more fortunate Americans. Poverty persists partly because many of us have, with varying degrees of self-awareness, decided that we benefit from its perpetuation.

About The 1619 Project

Hulu's upcoming six-part limited docu-series "The 1619 Project," is an expansion of "The 1619 Project" created by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine.

In keeping with the original project, the series seeks to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. The episodes - "Democracy," "Race, "Music," "Capitalism," "Fear" and "Justice" - are adapted from essays from The New York Times No. 1 bestselling "The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story" and examine how the legacy of slavery shapes different aspects of contemporary American life.

The series, hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, is a Lionsgate Production in association with One Story Up Productions, Harpo Films and The New York Times. It was executive produced by Nikole Hannah-Jones; Academy Award®-winning director Roger Ross Williams; Caitlin Roper, an editor of The 1619 Project and The New York Times' executive producer for film and television; Kathleen Lingo, The New York Times' editorial director for film and television; and Oprah Winfrey. Peabody Award-winning executive producer Shoshana Guy served as the showrunner.

CAST: Nikole Hannah-Jones

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Oprah Winfrey, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Shoshana Guy, Roger Ross Williams, Kathleen Lingo, Caitlir Roper

"A thought-provoking traveling exhibit opening in January 2023, highlighting the epidemic of stolen indigenous women, girls, and 2Spirits. 

The exhibition features 35 original works from 12 collaborating Indigenous artists and will draw attention to the crimes perpetrated against Native women and two-spirit individuals in the United States. Rather than present the impacted individuals and communities as statistics, the Mitchell Museum will use an interdisciplinary approach through visual stories, interactive content, educational programming, community events, and an awareness campaign to humanize and honor the lives of Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals.

Artists include: Valeria Tatera, Dakota Mace, Dante Bliss- Grayson, Roberto Mata, Simone Senogles, Ne-Dah-Ness, Nayana Lafond, Graci Horne, and NSRGNTS."

From the museum: “The Negro Motorist Green Book” guided Black Americans to thousands of businesses for over thirty years. In 20th-century America, the open road was a dangerous place for Black travelers. The land was divided by segregation — through policy and through custom. For Black people, the prejudice was severe: a systematic effort to deny their basic human rights. In an era of Jim Crow laws and “sundown towns,” communities that explicitly prohibited Black travelers from staying overnight, the “Green Book” offered critical, life-saving information and sanctuary.

Now, through The Negro Motorist Green Book, visitors will explore film, photographs, interactives, and oral histories from travelers and “Green Book” business owners; compare “Green Book” sites then and now; and appreciate historical objects from the Smithsonian and from a variety of “Green Book” sites. The exhibition includes artifacts from business signs and postcards to historic footage, images, and firsthand accounts that illustrate not just the apprehension felt by Black travelers, but also the resilience, innovation, and elegance of people choosing to live a full American existence.

Developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in collaboration with award-winning author, photographer, and cultural documentarian, Candacy Taylor, Green Book offers an immersive look at the historic reality of travel for Black Americans and how the guide served as an indispensable resource for the rise of the Black leisure class in the United States. The exhibition highlights destinations created by Black Americans and strategies that affirmed their humanity, their worth, their light, and their lives – and how it was done with ingenuity, community, and with help from Victor Green and his travel guide: “The Negro Motorist Green Book.”

September 11: Chapters 1-5

October 9: Chapters 6-10

ABOUT THE SUM OF US:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, BookRiot, Library Journal

“This is the book I’ve been waiting for.”—Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

In this one-man Broadway show, John Leguizamo finds humor and heartbreak as he traces 3,000 years of Latin history in an effort to help his bullied son.

Watch on Netflix! 1h 31m, TV-MA (2018)

Learn from History and Stand for Children are working with Director, Rachel Boynton, and Outcast Films to bring the documentary Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are) to people across the country. We think it is an incredible opportunity to connect and have important conversations about what students learn and don’t learn in schools, the importance of accurate history, starting from the same page, and more. 

The film travels the United States exploring how different Americans tell the story of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and how these events have shaped our present. 

Check out this video link to watch a conversation of "How the Civil War is Taught in Classrooms with Director Rachel Boynton"

In November and December, we will discuss topics and texts related to/by Indigenous and Native American writers and artists. For our December meeting, we will be discussing several documentaries:

1. VIDEO:  Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools (Part One), ~56 minutes

2. READING (very short): Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools (Part Two)

3. VIDEO: The Warrior Tradition, 55 minutes

In November and December, we will discuss topics and texts related to/by Indigenous and Native American writers and artists. 

 Listen to a sample of There There by Tommy Orange: https://soundcloud.com/penguin-audio/there-there-by-tommy-orange

If you are short on time, please read at least Chapter 3 ("Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield") about the Native American occupation of Alcatraz.

Tommy Orange is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California.

ABOUT CASTE -

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

"The village of Glencoe has a proud history of early African American settlement. In recent years, however, this once thriving African American community has begun to disperse. Robert Sideman, a thirty-year Glencoe resident, relates this North Shore suburb's African American history through fond remembrances of Glencoe communities such as the St. Paul AME Church, as well as recounting the lives of prominent African Americans. At the same time, Sideman poses a difficult question: how can the village maintain its diverse heritage throughout changing times? African Americans in Glencoe reveals an uplifting history while challenging residents to embrace a past in danger of being lost."

An eye-opening exploration of race in America

In this deeply inspiring book, Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America. Spurred by the realization that they had nearly completed high school without hearing any substantive discussion about racism in school, the two young women deferred college admission for a year to collect first-person accounts of how racism plays out in this country every day–and often in unexpected ways.

In Tell Me Who You Are, Guo and Vulchi reveal the lines that separate us based on race or other perceived differences and how telling our stories–and listening deeply to the stories of others–are the first and most crucial steps we can take towards negating racial inequity in our culture. Featuring interviews with over 150 Americans accompanied by their photographs, this intimate toolkit also offers a deep examination of the seeds of racism and strategies for effecting change.

This groundbreaking book will inspire readers to join Guo and Vulchi in imagining an America in which we can fully understand and appreciate who we are.

"The crucial, empowering, #1 New York Times bestselling exploration of racism—and antiracism—in America.

This is NOT a history book.

This is a book about the here and now.

A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.

A book about race.

The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning 

Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.

Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas–and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives."

Download the free educator guide here: 

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stamped-Educator-Guide.pdf

Young Readers edition: 

Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You