Four women stand at the crowded intersection of Sherman Avenue and Davis Street on Wednesday evening. A strong wind ruffles their head-to-toe black clothes.
Regardless of the weather, these women have stood here each week for three months, holding up signs, banners and photographs in silent protest of the war in Iraq.
“It’s an act of public mourning,” said Evanston resident Heather Munn, whose homemade wood sign bore the group’s name “Women in Black” and their slogan “For Justice. Against War.”
The logos and slogans are adopted from the “Women in Black” Web site. The loosely-structured organization has chapters all over the world, including one that meets weekly in downtown Chicago. The organization was started by Israeli and Palestinian women in 1988.
“We’re specifically talking about the Iraq war,” said Munn, who has been involved with the Evanston chapter since it began in February.
The group also draws activists whose anti-war roots run deeper into the past.
“I started protesting during the Vietnam War, when so many of our peers were being drafted,” said Sally Schreiner Youngquist, Weinberg ’73. “For me, protest is religious. Jesus tells us not to kill one another.”
Youngquist, who also is a Mennonite pastor, has brought her husband and high school-age daughter with her to past “Women in Black” demonstrations.
Onlookers have responded to the group’s weekly presence downtown with both support and nonchalance.
“Once a guy tried to argue with us,” Munn said, but added that most passers-by offer positive reinforcement.
“It’s nice when people honk,” Youngquist said. But she said she was surprised by how many Evanston residents were indifferent to the protest.
Wednesday’s protest sparked political discussion among some observers, who were divided between support for the protesters and doubts about the demonstration’s effectiveness.
“I believe the war was fought for the wrong reasons,” said Cory Rasco, a resident from Hoffman Estates, Ill., who watched the Wednesday protest from nearby Jamba Juice, 630 Davis St. “But five people standing on a street corner aren’t going to change the world.”
One of his friends immediately disagreed.
“They’re having an effect on me,” said Chicago resident Akioah Mcmullen. “Now that I’ve seen them, I might start thinking about the war. I might start reading about it.”
Katie Ayala, an employee at Jamba Juice, offered a mixed review.
“They’d find more people in Chicago,” Ayala said. “But they might get arrested.”
The protesters said they realize they face many hurdles in having their voiceless protest heard.
But Youngquist offered a spiritual perspective on their trials — whether ideological or meteorological.
“It doesn’t matter who sees us,” she said. “Just putting my body on the line means something. A protester once said, ‘Until peace people are willing to suffer as much for peace as soldiers have suffered for war, we won’t get anywhere.'”
Reach Anika Gupta at [email protected].
