Justice Lives in Community

Mayor DeShawn Williams, Urbana's 51st and first African American mayor, traced local Black history: the Ellis Drive 6, the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail, early Black entrepreneurs and the first Divine Nine chapters. He then took audience questions on surveillance ordinances, immigrant protection, housing segregation and homelessness. Michelle Lacey of Diversity & Social Justice Education gave a land acknowledgement; Ann Rasmus, a Y staff member announced the "Art of the Resistance" exhibition and the Illinois Interfaith Conference, and the executive director, Jim Hinterlong, introduced the speaker. The session opened the Y's 153rd year and the 99th year of the Friday Forum. Friday Forum + Conversation Cafe in Latzer Hall.