Alderman Talks About Racial Divide in Evanston

Evanston, IL - Evanston 5th Ward Ald. Delores Holmes talked about the discrimination she faced growing up in Evanston and the “racial divide” that still exists today at a recent community speaker event at Northwestern University.

“What happens in Evanston -- you live here, you work here -- it happens to you,” Holmes said during an event honoring her service and dedication to the city at the Norris University Center last week. “We need to talk about race...We have two Evanstons, and we always have. We all have to feel good about who we are, and we can get along. I feel very comfortable in this brown skin.”

Holmes was interviewed on stage in front of 120 guests by Dino Robinson, a Northwestern press production manager and the founder/director of ShoreFront, an organization that educates the public about African-American history on the North Shore.

Holmes, one of two black aldermen on the Evanston City Council, mentioned the discrimination she experienced as a young woman looking for a job in Evanston and later, how she helped lead a boycott that shut down District 65 as part of the effort to desegregate Evanston schools, according to a news release from the University.

“We lost the [school board] election, but we won the war,” she recalled. “Those experiences taught me a lot. We knew what our kids needed. I learned to form relationships and open communication. I learned how to do that. You have to sit down and work it out. You just have to do that.”

Holmes, who has been elected to serve the 5th Ward three times, announced earlier this year she won’t seek re-election in 2017.