NAACP DIVERSITY BREAKFAST CLOSES 
OUT BLACK HISTORY MONTH

By ERIC LINDEN

As it unofficially closed African American Heritage Month in Oak Park
this year, the NAACP Oak Park branch's breakfast celebration of
diversity on Saturday morning had a little bit of everything including:

-- another stirring performance of a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

-- Sadness expressed at the court verdict in the noted shooting in New
York of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo

-- Criticism for plans by some officials in Oak Park to form a
Leadership Council to address racial matters regarding the village and
its public schools

-- Gospel music by groups of local young people and adults

-- Calls to involve God, religions and their lessons in continued
discussions about diversity in Oak Park

"You have overindulged on fellowship this morning," the diversity
breakfast's keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. M. Randolph Thompson, senior
pastor of Fellowship Christian Church in Oak Park said to the racially
mixed audience attending the "celebration" at the Nineteenth Century
Woman's Club, 178 N. Forest Ave.

The keynote address by Thompson, whose congregation at 1106 Madison St.
this weekend will celebrate its fifth anniversary in Oak Park, contained
the most pointed references: expressions of sadness at the New York
state verdict in the Diallo shooting and subsequent verdict and at the
suggestion for the Oak Park leadership council.

The verdict acquitting four white New York City police officers of
wrongdoing in the February 1999 shooting of the unarmed Diallo had come
down the afternoon before the Feb. 26 diversity celebration in Oak Park,
and Thompson said the much-debated verdict told residents, especially
African Americans, that "We know that this country has a long way to go"
regarding race relations and related issues.

Public reaction to the verdict has been divided into two main camps:
either the officers made honest mistakes in thinking that Diallo was
armed the night of the shooting and that they needed to fire their
weapons 41 times to defend themselves or the officers were intent, as
they allegedly often do, on targeting minorities as suspects that must
be taken off the streets in the name of crime prevention.

"But we know there's a struggle right here at home," Thompson also said,
before criticizing the leadership council proposed by village government
officials as the best way for dealing with a contentious issue involving
race in Oak Park.

For more than six months, some residents in Oak Park have expressed
dissatisfaction at the racial discrepancy in the student populations in
Oak Park public elementary schools. In reaction last fall, village
government organized a community discussion about diversity. The event
drew more than 100 people and brought together residents, local
officials and outside experts to discuss their opinions and, perhaps,
courses to take in the future. Following the Saturday morning discussion
last year, village government officials later proposed forming the
council of officials from village hall, Oak Park Elementary School
District 97 and Oak Park and River Forest High School to work together
to decide on a procedure to set a course to insure racial diversity in
Oak Park.

Many of those concerned about the racial imbalance in the enrollments in
the elementary schools believe it is a threat to diversity in Oak Park
and want to proceed with steps to equalize the racial populations. But
Thompson and many others in Oak Park either don't see a threat or have
said the leadership council is an elitist way to reach a solution and
leaves out the interests and participation of blacks, Hispanics, young
people and others who would be impacted most by any decisions regarding
the schools and their racial makeup.

"We have a long way to go," Thompson repeated, and he called for more
involvement of various constituencies in the race-schools discussion.

Officials with District 97 have voiced a desire to explore the racial
issues by meeting with parents and other community members and have
expressed reluctance at participating in the leadership council--a
stance which has drawn both praise and criticism in Oak Park.

Aside from those court verdict and leadership comments, however, the Oak
Park diversity breakfast maintained a positive theme of unity and
working together toward a diverse and integrated community. The morning
was opened by the audience singing, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the
black national anthem, and included an opening prayer from Rev. Stanley
Davis, an Oak Park resident who is the Chicago executive director of the
National Council of Christians and Jews.

And in other musical selections, accompanied by pianist Herese Bruckner
Bowman, representatives of Gospel Choirs from Fellowship Church and from
Oak Park and River Forest High School gave performances that produced
rousing reactions from the breakfast audience that included a host of
elected and appointed Oak Park officials, plus members of the NAACP
branch and some other residents.

In another positive, OPRF High School student Gianna Baker received more
favorable reaction for delivering her essay that won this year's Martin
Luther King oratorical contest at OPRF. Baker, among other things,
called for residents not to forget Dr. King's lessons of combating
racial injustice in all forms.

"We fell asleep briefly, although maybe today we'll wake up," said
Baker, who had given her essay in January at the Martin Luther King Jr.
assembly at OPRF and at a Martin Luther King commemoration held by the
NAACP Oak Park branch and Project Unity, a multi-racial group that works
to build a "cross-cultural community" in the village.

"As we begin this new century in a country that still reeks of bitter
injustices, we can follow (Dr. King's) example and find our own cause
within our community," Baker added with a delivery full of a preacher's
cadences. "I am challenging you to stand bold. Some will try to
intimidate you, but walk forward! Others will attempt to ruin you name,
but walk forward! A few friends will  turn their backs, but walk forward
because maybe they weren't really your friends."

An honor roll student at OPRF, Baker's education record, essay and
delivery were praised by Oak Parker Gloria Smith, the mistress of
ceremonies for the diversity celebration.

"Don't forget her (Baker's) name because she has places to go," Smith
said.

Both Thompson and Smith also said that whatever steps Oak Park takes
toward a truly diverse and integrated community should involve looking
for help from the lessons of the Christian Lord.

"When you do things where God gets (involved)," Smith said, "things will
turn out right."

"This cannot be done without the presence of God," said Thompson, who
also encouraged continued steps to move toward true diversity.

"What is ahead," he said in conclusion, "is better than what's been."