Petition To Rename Joseph Sears School Prompts Community Dialogue

KENILWORTH, IL — School board members in Kenilworth announced a plan to convene all the village's elected officials to discuss the issues behind this summer's petition to strip the name of the village's founder from its lone school.

The online petition, titled "Kenilworth must remove the name of White Nationalist Joseph Sears from their school," was launched in June by recent New Trier High School graduates Solomon Podorovsky and Jack Yonover amid nationwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The petition asserted that the village has never been hospitable to non-white residents and was founded by Sears with the explicit intention of being all-white. It collected more than 4,100 signatures.

"A lot of kids that live in the North Shore don't understand the history of the North Shore," Yonover told board members in June. "There's a reason that most of our neighbors are white, and it's because of people like Joseph Sears who explicitly limited who could buy houses and the residual effects of that. That is what institutionalized racism is."

Following the petition, Kenilworth Historical Society officials announced an extensive research project that reviewed dozens of deeds from the 1890s through the 1940s covering each of the village's major subdivisions. It found the only restrictions placed on land sold in the village before Sears' 1912 death involved minimum building costs and street setbacks, the location of stables and a prohibition on the sale of alcohol, according to a statement from the group.

"Racial or religious restrictions only appeared in Kenilworth deeds starting from the 1920s," it said. "Deed restrictions in Kenilworth were not uniform village-wide. Restrictions varied over time by subdivision and some subdivisions had no deed restrictions."

RELATED: Remove 'White Nationalist' Village Founder From School, Petition Says

On July 17, the board and Superintendent Kate Donegan invited community members to join a name change advisory Group. The group first met on Aug. 10 and heard presentations from Podorovsky and historical society representatives.

A second meeting was held Sept. 23 and included North Shore historian Dino Robinson, founder of Shorefront Legacy Center, and James Loewen, author of "Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism"

"At the conclusion of the meeting, the Advisory Group found the data presented about the school's namesake, Joseph Sears, inconclusive as to whether he enacted exclusionary covenants; however, they acknowledged that Kenilworth has a reputation as having an exclusionary history," according to a summary of the meeting. "The Advisory Group determined the issue was broader than the school's name, and that the community as a whole should address this broader issue about the perception and reputation of Kenilworth."

Providing an update at the board's Dec. 14 meeting, Board President Evan Lukasik said the district has received the advisory group's recommendation.

"After completing the initial fact-finding, an advisory group was formed to review the petition, review the initial research and make recommendations to the board of education for further action," Lukasik said.

"At the conclusion of their last meeting, the advisory group determined that the issues leading to the petition expand beyond the school's name and should be addressed by the village as a whole," he said. "At the recommendation of this advisory group, the board of education reached out to the other village boards to discuss how all the elected boards can work together to address this issue and facilitate a larger group discussion."

Kenilworth's village board, park district board and school board are likely to jointly sponsor a community forum in 2021 once in-person gatherings are permitted, Lukasik said.

"This will allow us to work collaboratively and expand our efforts to be more actively inclusive, as we listen to our community, look at our history and better understand perceptions and reality about Kenilworth," he said.

Board member Mia Casey Sachs, the board's liaison to the Diversity, Equity and Belonging, or DEB, committee the district formed last year, said it was a difficult issue but she was glad the board was discussing more than just stripping the name of the village's founder from the 121-year-old school formerly known as Kenilworth Public School.

"When we've dug into the research. And when the committee dug into the research, I'm not sure it's all pinned on Joseph Sears," Sachs said. "But I think they're right that there is a real issue here, and I can speak to what we need to do as a school board is prepare our children who go through Sears School to go out into the world and do great things with their education.

"And as a Sears graduate myself I know you go on to New Trier, you go on to college, you can go on to countries, come back to Chicago as a professional or across the country or across the world, and people sometimes can make comments to you about the fact you grew up in Kenilworth and what that means," she said. "I would say it's not as often about the school itself, and I would like to see us look at how we prepare our children to do good in the world and really understand the history of our country and the history of our community and make things different moving forward, and help change that reputation as they go out as stewards of having been Sears graduates and how that can make them feel"

"I do think it's an important issue and we're in a good position as a school to help our kids understand the history of our country and also the history of what's happened this past year with Black Lives Matter and how they can make a difference moving forward and I'm excited for the next steps as we engage the community more broadly, because I think there's a lot we can do with curriculum. We're doing it with our policy, I think there's a lot we can do in terms of the schoolhouse as a whole being more inclusive."

Board member Lisa Metzger Mugg said she appreciated the process the board has undertaken since June.

"It happened during a very busy time, but it also happened during a very painful time for lots of people," Mugg said. "I appreciate that there still was progress that was made and difficult conversations that were had, and while the name change was just small part of it and continues to be something that we are using as some of the context for some of the work ahead, as Mia mentioned, there's a lot of great areas, and important critical areas, that are being covered as part of the larger diversity, equity, belonging and inclusion work that's going on.

"So I am excited to hear the level of engagement that we now have, that this is part of a standing board update and there's a lot of work that's going on, the newsletters that we're receiving, the equity audit," she added. "There's so much more work to be done but I also want to celebrate where we are and honor the great work that's been going on, the tough work that's been going on."

Board member Stephen Potter suggested the board continue discussing the matter, separately from the inter-governmental forum suggested by the advisory group.

"I would also like to have us consider, at our next off-site, actually starting it with a more detailed conversation amongst us around this issue," Potter said. "Because several other boards I'm on are really digging in on this, and if we can't be engaged and own it ourselves then we won't be as effective stewards of the change that we need to make at Sears and more broadly in Kenilworth."

Mugg agreed with Potter's suggestion at the Dec. 14 update.

"I appreciate where we are in terms of our facilitator, and I also appreciate where we are in terms of the challenges of COVID and other time constraints," she said. "But I would encourage us, as Steve mentioned, to really think about what we can do as a board and to revisit some of those recommendations that we approved at the June meeting and were revisited several times since during our board meetings, and I think we can easily pivot to a different format that still allows us to progress as a board."

At the board's June 8 meeting, Sachs provided a DEB Committee report on its efforts to foster a more inclusive environment.

"In the past year, the administration noted an uptick in reports of bullying in the schoolhouse and celebrating our differences will make the school a safer environment," Sachs said in a memo to the board. More recently, there has been concern about our community's history, some of which resulted in a petition to change the name of the school."

In its "recommendations for next steps" section, it provided a list of topics for discussion.

-Create opportunities to give voice to individuals who have felt marginalized in our community and find ways to support them
-Be transparent about the past, the present and the steps we are taking to make our community more inclusive in the future
-Commitment to understanding our current practices and the impact on students and working collaboratively with the schoolhouse and community members on developing an action plan.
-Continue ongoing work to incorporate diverse curriculum in our classrooms this includes working with the DEB Committee and following Illinois and Federal standard practices.
-Assess the effectiveness of these policies and practices.
-Commitment of professional development funds for faculty, staff, and board to take ongoing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training and on how to create more equitable institutions.
-Commitment to strengthening our hiring and recruitment procedures to ensure diversity of staff and board positions
-Commitment to examining the retention processes to ensure a welcoming climate for all faculty and staff.

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A sampling of communication sent to the board in response to the petition in June indicates the school community is divided on whether to rename the school.

"There is considerable evidence showing Joseph Sears blocked Jews and people of color from moving into the area, yet as far as I know, Kenilworth and its schools do nothing to acknowledge this," said a recent New Trier High School graduate.

Another Wilmette native, the parent of Black children, applauded Yonover's efforts. The parent described receiving racist and xenophobic comments over social media after supporting the renaming petition.

"I was made aware of Kenilworth's history decades ago, when my friend's family was discouraged by realtors from moving there because it was seen as not welcoming to families of color (my friend is Dominican and Puerto Rican)" the letter said. "It's disheartening to see that the racial makeup has changed little since my high school days, which can be, I think, attributed in part to real estate practices, but also to a general practice of exclusivity that can be traced back to Kenilworth's founding documents, and its founder.

"Renaming Joseph Sears School would be a small but mighty statement to families, the community, and the North Shore that while ours is a complicated history, it is one that we are able to face, and that we will work toward restorative justice where possible. Retaining the name, however, would continue to make permanent this history, and in fact scaffold a contemporary practice of white supremacy in Kenilworth, one that survived multiple progressive movements (including the current moment)."

But others, including a 50-year resident of Kenilworth, questioned a "revisionist" history that portrays Sears as racist.

"Joseph Sears never had anything to do with a restriction of 'Caucasians only', contrary to an inaccurate quote by Sears' daughter in Kilner's book about him. In fact, he invited the first black family into Kenilworth (in the 1890s, long before the Calhouns), one of the very first families to move into Kenilworth, and insisted the daughter enroll in what is now Joseph Sears School. He did other things that showed he was anything but racist or a 'white nationalist,'" the resident wrote.

"He partnered with Daniel [Burnham] in creating something called the Parliament of Religion, in 1893, which was an interracial, intercultural, interfaith organization, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, whose purpose was to bridge people from differing cultures and religions."

An 18-year Kenilworth resident also opposed renaming the school.

"To insinuate (very subtly) that the good neighbors of Kenilworth are dragging some type of Jim [Crow] baggage around because of the name on our school house is just tilting at the windmills. I know how far we have come as a society and a country," the resident said. "The last thing you and the board need is this crazy social justice crusade."

"I was informed of the effort of two former students to join the swelling movement against racism by using a name change as the vehicle for their commitment. How superficial. How post-millennial. A change in name without a change in behavior is simplistic, superficial and frankly, meaningless," said another Sears graduate.

"It misses the mark of the fact that this institution does not represent racism. It fails to acknowledge the graduates of the institution who are upstanding members of society and who use their money and labor for the greater good. It is precisely the solidarity with others who are proud of their life contributions that Sears graduates make the name for the district/school distinguished," the grad said, asking the board not to "belittle our pride" by renaming the school.

According to the district, elected officials at the village and park district are considering the school board's invitation to organize a dialogue with participants from as many parts of the Kenilworth community as possible.