As Juneteenth festivities in Temple Plaza wrapped up on Wednesday, several hundred people headed to the Masonic Temple on North Street for one final hurrah: a performance by local dance groups and a panel discussion on bridging the racial divide in Danville.
Leading the event was educator, activist, stand-up comedian, and leader of the Danville Juneteenth Celebration Committee, Chris Hightower, who proved throughout the night that he isn’t afraid to address the elephant in the room.
After performances by the youth of the Danville Lady Chargers and a final crowd-moving dance performance by Ubuntu Mentoring, most of the audience began filing out of the building.
“Don’t leave just because your kids are finished performing,” Hightower called into the mic. “These are important discussions you and your kids need to hear.”
Even so, when panel members took their seats on stage, the crowd had dwindled to less than 30.
As Vice Mayor Tricia Teague, NAACP President Ed Butler, and Illinois State Rep. Brandun Schweizer took their seats, Hightower warned them he wouldn’t be shying away from asking the hard questions, the first of which dealt with how much the racial divide in Danville has improved — or not — over the years.
“My parents were told you couldn’t buy a house north of Voorhees if you were Black,” Teague said. “They bought our house in 1974, and you still don’t see that many [Black] people north of Voorhees.”
Aside from the geographical divides — with the majority of the Black community primarily living in the eastern and southern portions of the city while the northern and western portions of the city remain primarily white — Teague also pointed out the lingering segregation in local churches.
“You would expect for our church leaders to get together and get to know each other and to be able to lead the city and build bridges, and you don’t see that happen,” Teague said. “Therein lies the issue. If our leadership won’t integrate, how is the rest of the community supposed to?”
When Butler’s turn came, he called for unity among the Black community and talked about the hardships he struggled to overcome in his career.
“I had to strive, I had to get my education, I had to go that extra mile to do what I needed to do to succeed, because the thumb was on me by my own people,” Butler said.
“We, as Black people, we need to combine ourselves together to make this move of systemic racism to get off of our back,” Butler continued. “But until we get together as a whole, as one, they won’t dare to make a change.” The audience clapped and called out in agreement with him.
Next, Hightower directed his attention to Rep. Schweizer — the only white person on the panel. Schweizer is married to Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr.’s sister, Amy Schweizer.
“What do you do, as a father, to make sure your biracial children have that connection to their culture while being raised by a white man?” Hightower asked Schweizer.
“Just teaching them how to be comfortable with themselves so they’re able to go out and explore, you know, all aspects of their lineage, and not just shying away from those hard conversations of slavery, of where their ancestors came from,” Rep. Schweizer replied.
He continued on, mentioning that only one of his three children “looks African-American with his curly hair” but saying he understands they would have been enslaved during the Slave Trade anyway because of their ancestry.
Hightower emphasized that though Black community members can take action, the responsibility for bridging the gap lays primarily with the white community.
“When we have these discussions, we as Black people always sit and say what we need to do,” Hightower said. “But the sin of slavery and racism and everything that this country was founded on is not something that we as Black people started. So how can you sit there and charge us with trying to fix that?”
Teague agreed with Hightower. “Looking out, I see that most of the audience is Black,” she said. “Until the oppressors, or the descendants of the oppressors, are willing to participate in the conversation, there’s no change that’s really going to happen in terms of bridging the divide.”
Butler said he believes the white community needs to give Black professionals a chance to prove their mettle, and in the workplace, white coworkers need to extend trust to their Black colleagues.
The discussion moved on to the issue of poverty, with Hightower’s assertion that many of the issues plaguing the Black community are rooted in poverty more than racism.
“America is a capitalist society, and that means whoever has the money controls the game,” Hightower said, explaining that poverty is the root cause of crime, not race or culture. “You’re not more likely to be robbed by somebody whether they’re white, Black, Mexican or anything, but you are more likely to be robbed by somebody if they are suffering from poverty.”
Teague agreed, suggesting that Black members of the community living in poverty are most affected by the systemic racism apparent in the housing crisis in Danville.
When certain property management companies neglect to repair their rental properties, Black community members’ complaints are ignored because they don’t utilize their rights to file an official complaint with the city, said Teague.
“Because they’re poor people, and they’re Black people — but mostly because they’re poor people — nobody listens. So they feel like they don’t have a recourse,” Teague said. When those renters refuse to pay their rent, hoping to force landlords to account, they are evicted and nothing ever changes, Teague said.
As far as ways to move forward, Schweizer said he focuses on educating his children and the younger generations to treat people with respect, whereas Teague spoke about the importance of attending city council meetings in order to stay informed about what’s happening in the community, and to voice one’s opinion surrounding new resolutions and ordinances.
Teague also talked about ways members of the Black community can be more open to discussions with white people who want to learn more and do better.
“Part of the issue is that some of the white people are just very uncomfortable with having a conversation or don’t want to say the wrong thing or don’t want to be offensive to people. And so they just avoid it,” Teague said. “I know it can be tiresome to have to educate people… but we as Black people have got to exercise some patience, too, with our friends of a different race to open the door for those conversations.”
After the panel discussion ended, violinist Bell Darris of St. Louis performed covers of modern R&B hits. The night ended with a raffling off of several prizes, including a grocery card, a gas card, and a 62-inch Philipps TV.