16 year old Grace Regan led a rally in Western Springs for the anti-family activist group "Black Lives Matter".
16 year old Grace Regan led a rally in Western Springs for the anti-family activist group "Black Lives Matter".
A political activist group that promises to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” held a rally Wednesday in family-filled Western Springs.
New York-based Black Lives Matter, which across the U.S. has organized street protests calling for the elimination of police departments over the past two weeks, held a small event at the community’s Tower Green.
The event was organized by 16 year-old Grace Regan of Western Springs, who recently completed her sophomore year at Lyons Township High School in La Grange.
Mya Jackson, second from left, claims she has experienced racism in Western Springs.
Ahead of her rally, Regan delivered water and donuts to the Western Springs Police, who thanked her for her generosity on their Facebook page.
Rally attendees then called on fellow residents to create unrest there until village leaders agreed to cut police funding and close the department.
“Take it to the streets! Defund the police!, No justice, no peace!” chanted marchers through the village. “No KKK! No Trump!”
Black Lyons Township graduate Mya Jackson, 18, spoke at the rally. She admitted that she was raised next door, in upscale suburban La Grange, and that her high school experience was “amazing.” But she said she was still a victim of racism.
“I have had lots of sacrifices, living out here,” Jackson said. “I don’t see lots of people that look like me.”
According to its web site, Black Lives Matter says its goals are to "dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk," to "(free) ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual" and to establish in America a different family structures than that typically pursued by Western Springs residents.
"We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and 'villages' that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable," the web site says.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, three in four Western Springs households are married couples living together.
43 percent of the households in Western Springs had children under the age of 18 living with them. The state average is 33%.
Western Springs was ranked the safest city in Illinois in a 2018 survey, recording zero violent crimes.
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