Central hosted a traveling exhibit on the Naperville area’s history of housing discrimination and race relations from Feb. 28-29.
The exhibit, titled “Unvarnished: Housing Discrimination In The Northern And Western United States,” was developed by Naper Settlement from 2017-2022. The exhibit is made of several collapsible walls filled with information on different race-related topics from Naperville’s past, from curfews to zoning laws.
“Unvarnished” was brought to Central by Rakeda Leaks, District 203 Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusion, as a part of the District’s efforts to celebrate Black History Month.
“I think it was a fun, different learning opportunity,” Principal Jackie Thornton said.
In the two days the exhibit was at Central, most or all of Central’s social studies classes visited the exhibit, according to Thornton. Students taking African-American Literature also visited the exhibit.
“I thought it was really cool,” said senior Sophia Fischer, a student in African-American Literature. “I thought that was really interesting that we got to see [how bad it was in Naperville for African-Americans] because I learned some stuff I didn’t know. I thought it was really cool that we got to have the opportunity.”
