"Never Give Up": Cook County Board Pres. Toni Preckwinkle Shares Her Thoughts for Black History Month

An unflinchingly frank Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, AB'69, MAT'77, led the Harris School of Public Policy into its celebration of Black History Month, exploring life in Chicago — particularly on the South Side — and in an America at a crossroads during a Feb. 1 fireside chat.

The first Black woman elected Cook County Board President, Preckwinkle took the audience at the Keller Center event through the decades of her Chicago story, which began when she arrived to attend the University of Chicago. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota — where as a child she had to fight her way home from predominantly white schools — she taught high school history on the South Side for 10 years and spent nearly two decades as 4th Ward alderman, representing neighborhoods including Hyde Park and Kenwood. With Harris Public Policy highlighting the power and pride in Chicago’s Black community this Black History Month, it turned to Preckwinkle to start February’s events — though she confessed to having mixed feelings about the observance of Black History Month in general. 

“African-American history is American history, and so the idea that we set aside a special month for Black history is an indication of the ways in which African-Americans are set apart and in some ways marginalized,” Preckwinkle told moderator Dana Bozeman, Harris’ Assistant Dean of diversity and inclusion. “On the other hand, the fact that Black History Month gives us an opportunity to focus on the history of African-Americans in America, of course, is a really good thing.”

This year’s observance comes at a time when America is at what Preckwinkle described as an inflection point, a time, she said, when there’s been “a resurgence of publicly acceptable racism.”

Whether Americans will try to address the challenges the nation faces or “succumb to the worst of us” is unclear, she said. But Preckwinkle, who tackled serious topics head-on while peppering her conversation with personal stories and laughter, told Bozeman there are also signs of hope. Here’s a look at other takeaways from the hourlong conversation:

On that quote by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”

“I wish I believed that there was a straight line of progress, but I don't,” Preckwinkle said, noting the recent rise in racism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim activity.

“It's not only [former President Donald] Trump, but a lot of that is attributable to the fact that we had a president of United States who felt free to demonize Americans who were different from him and to promote a white Christian nationalism,” she said, adding that she finds it “profoundly troubling.”

“Things are better than they were when I was born in 1947,” she said, “but that isn't to say that we've achieved some kind of utopia.” 

Her proudest accomplishment 

Preckwinkle, long a champion of affordable housing, pointed to redevelopment in the North Kenwood, Oakland, Douglas, and Grand Boulevard neighborhoods while she was alderman as a proud achievement.

With the goal of ensuring that “you couldn't tell the income of the person by the door that they walked through,” Preckwinkle, with the help of community leaders including Shirley Newsome, spearheaded the building of “a lot of affordable rental housing that was a mixture of public housing, affordable housing, and market-rate housing – and the buildings all looked the same,” she said. Residents, despite their income level, weren't concentrated in particular buildings and all units had the same features.

“I think that's really important as you redevelop cities, that we have opportunities for the people all to live together. That's the strength of our neighborhoods. They have that economic diversity,” she said, and they are strengthened by racial diversity.

The meaning of Black joy

“The Rev. Jesse Jackson always talks about the fact that we shouldn't let the struggles and the challenges that we face in this country deprive us of our joy — that we shouldn't focus on only the struggles and challenges in our lives,” she said. “He’s right, of course. But, you know, sometimes the challenges get pretty overpowering.”

Local challenges

“We live in a city and a county in which Black and Brown lives don't matter to some,” said Preckwinkle, pointing to headlines in the Chicago Sun-Times the day before that found Cook County to be “one of the most inequitable places in the country.” 

The paper reported on a study that showed “financial disparities in Cook County are almost double the national average,” noting that “Black and Latino residents are three to four times more likely to be financially vulnerable than their white counterparts.”

“Because of its long history of segregation and because of its endemic racism, our county has certain challenges, challenges that are common in the rest of the country but more … entrenched here,” she said. “On the one hand we have this rich cultural history here and on the other hand is this profound racism and oppression.”

A source of inspiration

Barbara Jordan. 

As Preckwinkle watched the 1974 evening television rebroadcasts of the House of Representatives’ Richard Nixon impeachment hearings (so she could prepare the next day’s lessons for her students), she said she was impressed by Jordan, then a Texas congresswoman on the House Judiciary Committee.

“I thought she was the epitome of a thoughtful, smart elected official,” she said. 

“There are a lot of other figures in Black history that I admire and respect,” Preckwinkle added, but Jordan had a “tremendous impact.”

Policymakers and empathy

What advice did Preckwinkle have, a member of the audience asked, to ensure policymakers working on housing issues showed care for the people to be served by their policies? 

“Don't stigmatize people,” she said. “Do whatever you can to be sure that we have mixed-income communities and try to promote home ownership particularly for Black and Brown families, because it's a way of building generational wealth.” 

What are the biggest sources of hope on the horizon for Blacks in Chicago?

“Well, you know, I was a high school teacher,” Preckwinkle told Bozeman. “I loved being a high school teacher. … I always felt like it connected you to the next generation and when I get tired of public service I will go back to teaching. … I have great faith in our young people. … We've just got to figure out how we can support them and help them on their own journey to success. And as I said, I look forward to doing that again, when I'm not doing this.”