Shorefront Legacy Center and Evanston Public Library: The History of Black Newspapers in Evanston

Conversation on Newly Digitized Collection of Black Evanston Newspapers

Following Shabbat services and Oneg on Friday, April 5, JRC will host a presentation by Dino Robinson, founder of Shorefront Legacy Center, and Jeffrey Garrett, reference librarian with Evanston Public Library.

Speaking through the lens of racial equity, Dino will utilize a newly digitized collection of Black newspapers by editor Melvin Smith, publisher of the Evanston Newsette (1942-1952) and the Concerned Citizens Commitment (1971-1985), to explore the importance of preserving voices that tend to be marginalized, overly generalized, or ignored entirely by popular history. As Dino has said, “These papers are very important because the Evanston Review did not cover the African American community well.”

Jeffrey Garrett will speak to the future work that is still needed in capturing and digitizing more historic newspapers and the inclusion of more media from traditionally marginalized communities.

This program is sponsored by JRC’s Racial Equity Task Force and all are welcome.

Join us in-person at JRC following our Kabbalat Shabbat service or via Zoom.