Northbrook group seeks to organize more programs on racial justice
A Northbrook-based group, focused on promoting racial awareness through educational programs, speakers, film showings and book discussions, is gaining new relevance in a climate of growing Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and injustice toward Blacks.
The recent killing of George Floyd and other unarmed black men and women, mostly by police, has sparked global unrest and waked the nation's conscience.
"It has been strange to be involved in the civil rights movement and decades later to see all these things again," said Van Gilmer, of Wilmette, an African American who grew up in segregated Greensboro, North Carolina, and has been involved in social and racial justice issues since the 1960s.
Gilmer, 76, is music director for the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette and a member of Racial Awareness on the North Shore or RAIN. He said Blacks who demonstrated in those days got waterhosed and jailed, but never feared being shot by police.
"What happened to George Floyd, that was an awakening for everybody," Gilmer said. "Even more awareness is needed ... There is a change needed in the country. Now, we have not only an interested audience, but people who want to do something."
Gilmer believes RAIN today must move beyond educating people to promoting anti-racist action.
The grass-roots organization began in 2015 when several Northbrook religious leaders sought to come together to talk about race. Organizers later changed the group's focus to reach predominantly white North Shore communities. The group also is working with Healing Everyday Racism in Our Schools, or HEROS, to combat racism.
"We feel like the wind has shifted in a mostly white community," said Bruce Bondy of Northbrook, a RAIN member and chairman of the Northbrook Arts Commission.
Bondy joined after a group trip last year to the Equal Justice Initiative's Museum and Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, to learn more about the history of the U.S. slave trade.
"It was a transformative experience," Bondy said. "It was life-changing. Seeing it firsthand, what I came away with ... we are swimming in an ocean of white privilege and we are unconscious to it. We have to right this wrong."
Group members have been meeting and hosting educational programs at the Northbrook Public Library. Virtual events organized since Floyd's murder have been well attended.
"We can see there is a change," Bondy said. "RAIN is a first step. The journey toward becoming anti-racist begins with education. So much is shifting right now ... We want to help people learn about our history. We see RAIN as a great vehicle for doing that."
Bondy would like to organize more group trips to Montgomery. One scheduled for November has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bondy hopes RAIN can have a greater voice in issues affecting the community, such as school hiring practices, diversification and affordable housing.
"We are starting to have a dialogue even within our community," Bondy said.
Bondy's wife, Lauren, also a RAIN member and a parent educator/therapist, teaches a workshop on raising white children to be anti-racist.
"Six months ago, she maybe had 10 to 12 people participate," said Bondy, adding that a recent event drew 115 people. "It tells you that all of a sudden there is a shift."