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When Not In Our Town first aired on PBS in 1995, the community of Bloomington/Normal
embraced the campaign as their own and became the first Not In Our Town city. Since then, Not In Our Town campaigns have
sprouted up across the state, as communities throughout Illinois have become
increasingly committed to putting a stop to hate crimes and racial intolerance.
Bloomington hasn't experienced hate crime locally and its residents want to keep it that way.
Following a mayoral proclamation in 1995, Bloomington hosted town forums about racial
intolerance at churches, union halls and the local high school, and police wore Not
In Our Town buttons to raise awareness. Citizens voted to post signs declaring
"No Racism, Not In Our Town" to greet people entering the city. Bloomington has
held Not In Our Town events every year since then, including a march to the town's
oldest African American church, where participants signed up to help rebuild
churches burned in the rash of arsons in the South. Citizens from Bloomington,
including City Council member Mike Matejka, Barbara Adkins from the Mayors'
office and student Liz Halbert, helped spread the movement across the state.
View Bloomington's Pledge Card>>
[Watch the Video 56k | 220k]
In July 1999, Benjamin Smith-a man with ties to the Peoria-based white supremacist
group World Church of the Creator-went on a three-day shooting spree that targeted
blacks, Jews and Asians and killed two people. In response to Smith's hate
crime rampage, citizens in Peoria/East Peoria called upon the Bloomington NOT
IN OUR TOWN campaign for help.
Barbara Adkins of the Human Rights Commission of Bloomington worked closely with
the City Attorney of Peoria/ East Peoria to form a Not In Our Town effort there.
About 250 people from Peoria/East Peoria and Bloomington/Normal came together
on a march along the freeway that joins the two communities in a show of
solidarity with one another in the face of hate crimes. To help spread the
word of tolerance, the local Peoria newspaper published a full-page message
declaring: "Hate Has No Home Here. Central Illinois values equality, justice and diversity."
[Watch the Video 56k | 220k]
Rockford is a town divided. It gets its name from the Rock River that flows
through the middle of town cutting the East Side from the West Side. For
over a decade, the town has also been split over a desegregation lawsuit
resulting from a school board decision to close ten schools, including West
High School, the city's only naturally integrated high school.
In an attempt to identify and address the larger issues fueling the ongoing
division, co-workers Fleur Williams and Gloria Cudia of the Rockford Parks
Department drew city leaders into a conversation about intolerance. The
result was a city-wide Not In Our Town campaign that used full-page newspaper
ads, donated billboards and a PSA put together by the local television
station to invite businesses, organizations and individuals throughout
the Rockford community to participate. The campaign included a proclamation
against racism, which was signed by over 200 local businesses, organizations and citizens.
View a Sample Proclamation>>
A March Across Rock River
Gloria Cudia and Fleur Wright of the Parks Department, along with teacher Karin Portis, organized Rockford's Not In Our
Town campaign, which was launched with a mayoral proclamation and delivered on Martin
Luther King's birthday. More than 200 citizens joined a march through town, which
led them from the West Side, across the Rock River Bridge, to the East Side.
[Watch the Video 56k | 220k]
Not In Our School
At West Middle School, student council members challenged their classmates to
sign on to the Not In Our Town proclamation by organizing a Not In Our School
Campaign, which included a school-wide assembly, with student-produced skits
showing examples of in-school stereotyping and intolerant behavior.
The following semester, West Middle School took their show across town to
the East Side high school.
[Watch the Video 56k | 220k]
In 1998, the city of Decatur established "Decatur Not In Our Town," a non-profit
entity of the county's office of education, to offer race relations training
sessions. The agency provides training and assistance for public school
teachers, students, city employees and elected officials. The program's
goal is to rid the community of racism-one member at a time.
Galesburg, Illinois' Human Relations Commission named September "Not In Our Town"
month to combat hate crimes and raise awareness and tolerance of diversity in their community.
When Matt Hale, leader of the white supremacist group World Church of the
Creator, organized a meeting in Springfield in July 2001, members of the
newly created, city-sponsored "Not In Our City" campaign encouraged residents
to attend a celebration of the city's diversity that same day. An estimated
200 people attended the Gathering in Celebration of Diversity, while about
70 people-half of them Hale detractors-attended Hale's meeting.
The "Not In Our City" campaign sprung from the Study Circles Program on
Race Relations. The Study Circles program places residents into diverse
groups of 10 to 15 people for weekly discussions about race relations.
After of the sessions, the groups suggest ways to improve relations in Springfield.
Celebration of diversity to counter Hale visit
By Jayette Bolinski Staff Writer
Members of a new Springfield campaign against hate are encouraging residents to
be at a celebration of the city's diversity July 14, instead of at a local
meeting of Matt Hale and his World Church of the Creator.
The city-sponsored campaign, called "Not In Our City," was organized to open
up discussion about diversity and intolerance in Springfield. The ultimate
goal of the campaign is to eliminate hate, said Sandy Robinson II, director
of community relations for the city.
"We want to live in a city where people get along very well. What that involves
is beginning to at least articulate some kind of vision for that," Robinson
said Friday. "We didn't think it was a far stretch to say we want to
eliminate hate. We thought that was a pretty basic place to start."
The "Not In Our City" campaign is a recommendation of the communitywide
Study Circles Program on Race Relations. Organizers of the campaign are
distributing street signs, posters, key chains, buttons and other items
that say "Not in our homes, not in our neighborhoods, not in our city."
The Study Circles program, created in 1998, places residents into small,
diverse groups of 10 to 15 for a series of six weekly discussions about
race relations. At the end of the sessions, each group submits a set of
recommendations about how to improve relations in Springfield. Matt Hale
oversees the East Peoria-based World Church of the Creator, an organization
that preaches racism, anti-Semitism and "white unity." The organization
has reserved a room at Springfield's Lincoln Library from 2 to 4 p.m. July 14.
Robinson said he hopes residents will reject Hale and instead go to "A
Gathering in Celebration of Diversity" sponsored July 14 by the Coalition
to Promote Human Dignity and Diversity at the Howlett Building auditorium,
501 S. Second St.
"The best way to deal with an individual like that is not give him much
publicity and not much attention," Robinson said. "There will be another
event on that day that I think defines and in many ways demonstrates
what's going on in our community as far as unity and people working together."
The coalition's event, also from 2 to 4 p.m., will feature speakers,
religious and spiritual leaders, singers, dancers and youth groups,
according to Beverly Charles, co-chair of the coalition. "But you do not
have to be a religious person to participate," Charles said. "It is open
to all, and it will be a gathering that will appeal to a variety of people.
We want to deliver a message that his kind of hate is not what we want
in our community. So come, enjoy and participate, and show your stance
against hatred for the citizens of Springfield."
"Not In Our City" organizers also want to promote community groups and
organizations that work to overcome problems related to diversity. They
have not set up any events, and Robinson said they primarily want to
inspire people to think about how they can improve race relations on
individual, small-group and community-wide levels.d
"We do have a notion that there might be some type of events in the future,"
he said. "What we want to do is really just take a look at what we have
now and give those things some spotlight. There are no grandiose plans
for this initiative other than getting this message out and focusing the
spotlight on some organizations that are out there already."
For more information on the "Not In Our City" campaign or to make arrangements
to pick up posters or other campaign items, call the community relations
department at 789-2270 or browse its Web site at www.sdcr.org. For more
information about "A Gathering in Celebration of Diversity," call 788-7800.
Robinson said organizers have received some ribbing about the perceived
simplicity of the "Not In Our City" campaign, but he doesn't mind. "We've
taken some flack," he said, recalling that some people thought the "Just Say No"
anti-drug campaign was little more than a pipe dream. "If we get accused of
being hokey or overly optimistic or idealistic, that's fine, because we
believe every great movement is started with a vision and a goal in mind."
© 2001- State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL)
Reprinted with permission from State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL)
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