Beverly Residents to Local Church: You Caved In

Evan F. Moore | As of Friday, October 9, 2015

Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood has long been an enclave to many of the city’s law enforcement officers. Ironically, the rallying cry of an organization that has chastised the police for some of their tactics, prominently landed on a digital scrolling sign of a church in Beverly.

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Photo by: Cydni Polk

A sign that reads Black Lives Matter placed outside the Beverly Unitarian Church, located at 10244 S. Longwood Dr. in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, has had a polarizing effect on residents there.

As soon as word spread about the Beverly Unitarian Church’s “Black Lives Matter” digital sign, those who believe the group spouts anti-police and racial rhetoric, voiced their outrage on social media.

In response, the church said this on their Facebook fan page:

“Here at Beverly Unitarian Church (BUC), twice a month, we post what we hope are inspiring and/or thought provoking sayings. The BUC Board picked “Black Lives Matter” at our mid-August Board meeting. We felt the message behind these words that for too long black citizens have been demonstrably less valued, could inspire us all to look at how we might change. We still believe the premise of this statement. Having started the conversation far and wide our current posting says: Life Matters, Risk loving everyone.”

The Chicago Citizen Newspaper spoke with several current and former Beverly residents. Some were elated about the church’s stance and were looking forward to having conversations about race in America.

Experimental psychologist Eamon Caddigan grew up in Beverly. He had a family member who attended the Beverly Unitarian Church.

“I was proud when a highly-visible institution showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and felt disappointed when they changed the sign,” Caddigan says. “Beverly is predominantly white, but is also one of the area's more diverse neighborhoods (c.f. Mt. Greenwood), and the Unitarian Church has always been home to Beverly's more progressive residents; I therefore thought it made a lot of sense when they initially displayed the sign. I'm curious whether the pressure to change it came from within the Unitarian congregation or outside of it.”

Valeisha Manning is an independent contractor, also grew up Beverly. She believes the church may have given into the narratives that continue to pull people apart.

“I think that bullying on or at any point is wrong,” Manning says. “The mere notion of Black Lives Matter being defined as anti-cop is disgustingly ignorant and intensive towards the daily lives in which are affected by the melanin in their skin.”

When Truestar Magazine co-founder Na-Tae Thompson moved to Beverly in the late 80’s, it was her first experience with having daily interactions with white people. She described it as “Our Side, Their Side".

“When hearing the news of the Black Lives Matters being removed, I didn't really flinch,” said Thompson. “Honestly, I was more shocked that it was put up in the first place. When it was taken down, I immediately thought, now there is the Beverly that I know!"

Thompson says the removal of the sign should get people thinking about the world around them.

“For a slight moment I felt disappointed, but we have bigger fish to fry, like getting Blacks to understand that Black Lives Matter, like getting others to respect that Black Lives Matter, like getting Black youth to even care about their lives mattering. A sign being up or down will not help or hinder this task that we have before us,” Thompson added.

Many of the African-Americans who moved into Beverly in recent decades have horrifying stories about how some of their neighbors were afraid when the names in Beverly went from O’Malley, Kehoe and O’Brien to Jackson, Williams and Jones.

Todd Clayton, who grew up in Beverly, once told WBEZ that he and some of his friends were playing basketball in Beverly Park when they heard racial slurs from other kids. He notified the police and they told him and his friends not to go the park again. Clayton told WBEZ that he and his friends went back to the park.

For further clarification, some of the presidential candidates lined up to show support for Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, a woman who refused to grant marriage licenses to gay people. Meanwhile, those same people didn’t offer any public support when police officers in New York tackled and detained retired tennis superstar James Blake because he fit the description last month.

Beverly native Aven Deese saw racism growing up in the neighborhood. He says the church gave in.

“I think it’s a sad reinforcement of the message. Black people are not allowed to speak up for themselves in America without getting anger and fear from the majority,” Deese says. “It’s an irritant at best and at worst, an existential threat. It’s sad that the concept even has to be explained.”

Maria Moser, a musician with Beverly Unitarian, expressed her thoughts on the backlash of the church’s decision to remove the sign on a Facebook group called the “Southwest Chicago Diversity Collaborative:”

"Hi everyone, please be patient with us as we move forward on this. I think our admins were unprepared for the backlash they experienced. We have not had an opportunity as a church community to discuss what has happened and how we can respond within our value system. I don't think this is a retraction of the original sign."

Numerous attempts to contact Beverly Unitarian Church and Chicago Police Department Communications Director Anthony Guglielmi went unanswered.

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