Marches For Justice, Against Racism Planned In Winnetka

WINNETKA, IL — Two groups announced plans for protest marches Saturday morning in Winnetka. The first is due to begin at 10 a.m. at New Trier High School. The second is set to begin at 11 a.m. at Dwyer Park. Both are scheduled to conclude at Winnetka Village Green.

At noon, organizers plan to kneel and observe eight minutes and 45 seconds of silence in memory of George Floyd, whose death last month with a police officer's knee on his neck has prompted nationwide protest against police brutality and racism.

Patrick Hanley and Grace Scullion, organizers of the Winnetka Walks Against Racism event starting at Dwyer Park, noted the event takes place nearly 55 years since Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Winnetka Village Green in front of a crowd of 10,000, condemning the racist housing discrimination policies that kept non-white families from moving to the village.

"North Shore Community: at this moment of national conversation about racism in America, our homogeneity does not exempt us from the conversation. Progress can only happen when we confront our racist legacy and persisting complicity with systems of oppression," they said in a statement announcing the event.

The organizers plan a silent walk from Dwyer Park to Village Green at 11:30 a.m., followed by 15 minutes of speeches from unspecified local leaders ahead of the noon vigil for Floyd.

"Together, we must send the message that even in this community — surrounded in privilege and wealth — we hear the protests loud and clear, and answer the call that our system must change and bend toward justice."

The New Trier Community Walk for Justice, which starts at the Winnetka Avenue front courtyard of New Trier's Winnetka campus, is being organized by the local group Healing Everyday Racism in Our Schools, or HEROS.

A schedule of the event includes eight minutes of silence at 10:15 a.m. followed by 30 minutes of remarks from unidentified speakers and a march to Village Green Park at 10:45 a.m..

HEROS was formed in early 2018 by students, parents, teachers and neighbors to address racism in North Shore schools, according to an open letter to New Trier High School District 203 Board of Education.

It noted black high school and middle school students in the township recounted the "casual and almost daily use of the n-word among their peers on and off campus, both verbally and in print," as well as other racist slurs, teachers mocking Martin Luther King Jr. Day and throwing away copies of the student newspapers that addressed racism at New Trier.

Organizers of both groups asked attendees to keep appropriate physical distance between one another to reduce the potential spread of the coronavirus. Hanley and Scullion recommended those who attend consider self-quarantining and limiting contact with vulnerable populations after the event.