African American, Native America , Caribbean & the Americas Conference Series

As a part of the 14th Annual African, African American, Native American, Caribbean and the Americas Heritage Conference Series (AAANACA) held at NEIU, Stan West presented the  book he co-authored, "Suburban Promised Land."

As one of the authors of the book, West said that 10 years ago he and Peggy Tuck Sinko, Frank Lipo, and Yves Hughes, Jr. came up with the idea to chronicle the history of African Americans in Oak Park, Ill. He talked about how there had been many studies and research done, but they needed the people to tell their stories in order to get a complete account.

Combining oral history with primary sources was the approach they felt necessary in telling the authentic story of the emerging black community in Oak Park. Telling public stories along with people's private stories, he said, was the right way to depict this part of the history.

"We felt we needed both wings," he said. Stories grandparents had talked about are important and according to him, "Bring power to people who don't normally do this."

He was not only addressing African Americans, but bi-racial people as well. He told a few stories of how, when and why these individuals began to move to Oak Park. To open this part of the discussion West played a short movie called "The Achievement Gap: From Students' perspective."

The crew was asking the kids in the movie what they thought about black and white, and if there is an achievement gap by race in the schools. It was interesting for the audience to hear the answers of all the kids interviewed, and that is why he encouraged everyone to go to Youtube.com to watch the entire movie.

Elaborating on why Oak Park was the Promised Land for many blacks and bi-racial people, he said that it was one of the few, "tolerant and receptive communities" at that time in the nation. Oak Park, according to him, for many black people was that peaceful place where they were not beaten, chased and hung.

Continuing with the discussion on his book, he talked about certain black members of the community.  He mentioned some famous and well-educated people who had lived or visited Oak Park. One was Paul Robenson, an African American singer, writer, athlete, multilingual orator lawyer, and forerunner of the Civil Rights movement.

West did not forget to mention Oak Park as the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway, who he said was a racist and sexist.

Talking about many sophisticated people from Oak Park, the author told the story about Percy Julian who had received a doctorate in chemistry and was a very respected scientist.  The Julians were the first African American family to move to Oak Park. In 1950, the year they moved, their future house was bombed. That next year,  in 1951, the house was attacked with dynamite, driving the community to organize a group to protect the Julians.              

After the presentation was over the floor was open for questions and comments.  Many of the audience members agreed with the author in that we must not judge people based on how they look.

Furthermore, there was a question on what would be a solution for the achievement gap between black and white kids, regarding the video, "The Achievement Gap." 

"Is Oak Park as diverse as you think it is?" asked a student.  West responded by saying that it is important to understand what diverse is in the first place. He referred to something he said earlier, that if you ask a 100 people what is diversity, you would receive 100 different answers.

He added that we must not make assumptions and that there is still segregation in Oak Park.  The presentation closed with one last comment a woman made, "Telling the truth is not going to [cause] more racism."