Support Racial Equity & Justice
The path forward to achieving racial equality and justice first demands acknowledging the horrors of the past and the ways that structural inequities still persist in communities of color. In this spirit, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19) seeks to raise awareness about the worst incident of racial violence in Chicago's history by installing artistic markers to reflect on the thirty-eight people killed during the riot.
Chicago’s 1919 race riots remind us that there is nothing natural or inevitable about segregation: it was invented and maintained through a powerful blend of violence, intimidation, and law. Yet we might remember that conflict resolution is also in our history: we hold the potential to come together in recognition and reconciliation. More than one hundred years later, whether we remember the riots or not, we still live within this legacy.
We believe our public art project and interactive year round programs can help push the needle in the direction of racial equity and justice and hope you will join our efforts to raise awareness about the history and root cause of racial violence in our city and country.