By Bob Seidenberg
Janet Alexander Davis, an early civil rights activist whose service and grounded advice has been treasured by generations of Evanston leaders at multiple organizations, was honored with a street segment designated in her name at the June 12 City Council meeting.
Evanston City Council members voted unanimously at Monday’s meeting to designate Leland Avenue between Church Street and Lyons Street the honorary street name of “Janet Alexander Davis Way.”
Janet Alexander Davis, an early civil rights activist whose service and grounded advice has been treasured by generations of Evanston leaders at multiple organizations, was honored with a street segment designated in her name at the June 12 City Council meeting.
Evanston City Council members voted unanimously at Monday’s meeting to designate Leland Avenue between Church Street and Lyons Street the honorary street name of “Janet Alexander Davis Way.”
According to the street name application, in 1998 Davis and another resident started a job readiness program called Strive on Howard Street in Chicago; after three years, 40% of the participants were from Evanston.
Along with Delores Malone, Davis developed two mental health workshops for Black, Brown and other people of color in Evanston. Davis also was director of operations at the Over the Rainbow Association, which provides independent living for individuals with physical disabilities.
Through the years Davis has built up a wide and diverse network of friends and contacts in Evanston, the application stated.
The list of groups she has been involved with includes the Moran Center for Youth Advocacy; Citizens Greener Evanston – Environmental Justice Committee member; Evanston Human Relations Commission – board of directors; Evanston United Neighbors – board of directors; Evanston Youth Initiative – founding member; Habitat for Humanity: The Evanston Project – board of directors; McGaw YMCA: Honoring the Emerson Street YMCA Committee.
‘A tremendous support’
Reflected Burns, “If there was a community engagement Hall of Fame, then, without question, Ms. Alexander Davis would be a first-ballot nominee for sure. No one told me when you’re elected Fifth Ward council member that it comes with a Janet Alexander Davis, but I’m glad it did, because she has been a tremendous support not only to me, but council members going back at least to Alderman [Delores] Holmes. And that’s just a small kind of role that she volunteers to play here in our community.”Praise poured in from other quarters of the community, both in citizen comment at the June 12 council meeting as well as at the June 5 Human Services Committee meeting where members unanimously supported the nomination.
Some excerpts:
Her advice ‘never narrow’
Said Mayor Daniel Biss: “Before I became mayor, Ms. Alexander Davis was willing to give some of her time to advise me on environmental issues. Obviously … I benefited tremendously from her knowledge on those issues, but the thing that really sticks with me was that her advice was never narrow. It wasn’t, ‘Here’s how to think about one environmental issue,’ it was, ‘Here’s how to connect that with the budgetary challenges facing the city’; ‘Here’s how to connect that with the equity challenges facing the city’; ‘Here’s how … my history in the city teaches me to understand, not just the issue before us right now, but what the direction is going and how it’s going to affect people in the future if we don’t do something about it.’
“And I just found that really inspiring, really eye-opening,” the mayor said. “It’s something that I carry with me and I do my humble best to learn from and emulate.”
‘Her decorum served as a model’
Said RoundTable co-founder Mary Gavin: “I’m very happy that you [the council] have the opportunity to vote to recognize her devotion to the community of Evanston by having a portion of Leland Avenue named in her honor. In addition to being a community activist and advocate for Black and Brown youth and environmental justice, she’s been an ally and a model. She has been an ally to you, City Council members, and to your predecessors by speaking up about critical issues in a civil manner. Even when she disagreed with something she always acknowledged the difficult work the City Council members have to tackle. And then that same thing, her decorum, serves as a model for others whose passion motivates them to come here.”’
‘A difference maker’
Said Patricia Cherry Reese, founding member of the Cherry Scholarship Fund: “Janet is involved in the community. When the McGraw YMCA celebrated the Emerson Street YMCA [an important recreation and social center for Black residents in the era of segregation] for its historic significance, my husband Robert and I reached out to Janet to serve on the committee, because we knew if Janet was on your team she would make a difference. And she did. She is continually working to improve the lives of the residents.
“Remember, Janet grew up on Leland Avenue [which will bear the honorary street name]. Today she is active in the block club. She’s a worker, a doer. Ask her neighbors, either new … or longtime neighbors of 30 years. Their response will be the same: ‘A great neighbor, she cares.’”
‘Right-hand person in the ward’
Delores Holmes, who represented the Fifth Ward on City Council from 2005 to 2017, said she and Davis grew up together in the ward, “and I’ve watched her over the years, but the 12 years that I served as alderman, Janet was my right hand, and we did something that had not been done before in the Fifth Ward – we developed a newsletter that Janet really ran for us, working with Dino Robinson [founder of Shorefront Legacy Center and chronicler of Black history on the North Shore]. She was our everything in terms of helping my team, [vital] when I was alderman, because you can’t do this job alone. And as for those people who now protest the transfer station … Janet Alexander Davis and Tanya Noble were two of the first persons who volunteered to work on environmental justice for Evanston, and that has continued over the years. And I am thrilled the city is going to say ‘Thank you’ by naming the 1700 block of Leland for Janet, because she’s so deserving.”
A philosophy of community service
After council members voted 9-0 in favor of the honorary street naming, Davis imparted a little about her own philosophy of service on a night the council was expected to adopt the city’s first civility pledge.
Davis told council members that “We need each other, whether we agree or not.” She said even in situations where she or the other party is upset, she’s found delivering a message with respect is key. “And I’ve learned that when I hear something you say I don’t agree with, after awhile I think it over and I think, ‘I get that piece of it.’ Why can’t we do that?”
The street naming ceremony on Leland Avenue is expected to take place at a block party on July 22.
