Chicago Dinners

December 7 Dinner

Politics in Chicago and Illinois: Reflections on Ethnicity, Race & Religion

Paul Green, Director of the Institute for Politics and Arthur Rubloff Professor of Policy Studies at Roosevelt University, was the featured speaker at the December 7 Chicago Dinner. Mr. Green is also the Political Analyst for WGN Radio, guest columnist for Crain’s Chicago Business, and the author of several books and articles on Illinois and Chicago politics. His latest publications, co-authored with Mel Holli, are entitled World War II Chicago and The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition, 3rd edition.

Paul Green provided an informative base from which attendees divided into discussion groups to focus on where we are in 2010 as a modern city and a region in the heartland of the country. During the two decades of Mayor Daley’s tenure, the election process appears to have become inclusive. However, with the incumbent retiring will a virtual
political “free for all” lead to the “good old bad days” of vitriolic racial and ethnic divisions whenChicago was called Beirut on the Lake? Will the election reignite old tensions or reveal simmering ones? 

Stay tuned for more information on the dinner and how you can register for the next Chicago Dinner!

january 27 Dinner

Adam Zucker, filmmaker, introduced his film "Greensboro: Closer to the Truth." The film documented the first ever Truth and Reconciliation Commission of its kind held in the United States 25 years after what is now known as “The Greensboro Massacre.” On this day, a caravan of white supremacists confronted and fired on demonstrators preparing for a “Death to the Klan” rally in an African American neighborhood in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Commission came together in 2005 to help the community grapple with this tragic history that continues to have an impact today. The film provides an opportunity for viewers to witness the process one community went through to revisit an unresolved history and heal.

Since 1995, the Chicago Dinners have been bringing together small groups of civic, business, and community leaders from a variety of racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds to discuss the issue of race and other difficult topics.

about the Chicago Dinners

The Dinner offers residents of the country’s “most segregated city” a rare opportunity to meet and converse with people different from themselves. Dinners are hosted in restaurants, homes, places of worship and other community gathering places. A facilitated discussion is held throughout dinner to begin to do the work necessary to create effective solutions to our problems. 

The premise of the Chicago Dinners is that meaningful conversations and interactions are the foundation for the creation and implementation of effective policies for systemic change.