Sunday morning arrived overcast, dreary and humid. But the weather did not deter about 1,800 parents, kids, high schoolers, co-workers, friends and families from gathering behind the starting line of the the 7th annual Ricky Byrdsong Race Against Hate at the corner of Lincoln Street and Sheridan Road. Before the 8 a.m. start time, people walked through the groups of tents set up on Long Field, while some stretched and jogged around the field to warm up.
The mood was positive and upbeat, as people prepared for the 5k run/walk and one mile Youth run that honors the memory of former Northwestern University Basketball Coach, Ricky Byrdsong, who was murdered by a white supremacist in the summer of 1999 while walking in a Skokie neighborhood with his two sons.
“We all remember when it happened,” said Evanston resident Maria Ballantyne, who ran the race with her husband, Steve.”It was horrific,” said Evanston resident Cory Crock, another runner in the race.
Working in a diverse community has allowed her to see how people are treated differently, Crock said. She said the violence and hatred shown towards others, especially minorities, is something that people have to be aware of and think about.
Evanston resident Aidan Murphy, 14, summed this year’s race up in two words: “It’s fun.”
It feels like you’ve achieved something when you cross the finish line, Murphy said.
For Ginny and Terry Meenan and their two daughters, the race was a family affair – an event they could all participate in and learn from.
“We wanted our kids to do it so that we can talk about it’s message,” said Ginny Meenan, who walked with daughters Abby, 11, and Betsy, 9.
“It’s a great family event,” Terry Meenan said. “We like the sense of community.”
The 2006 certified out-and-back race course has participants running along Evanston’s lakefront on Sheridan Road to Greenwood Street and then back to the starting point at Lincoln Street. All of the participants were timed by wearing a computer chip on their shoes. The course is fast, with this year’s top finisher, Jacek Kafel, clocking in at 14 min. 59 sec. Several hundred more people participated in this year’s race over last year’s, said race sponsor YWCA Development Director Addie Goodman.
A few weeks prior to the race, lawn signs advertising the race began to appear in yards throughout Evanston. The lawn signs were introduced last year, Goodman said, and this year were a hit. Two weeks before the race so many people were coming to the YWCA asking for signs that they ran out, she said.
The event also had twice as many sponsors this year, she said. The race’s presenting sponsor for all seven years has been the AON corporation, where Ricky Byrdsong worked as Vice President of Affairs when he was murdered.
AON not only supported the race through funds, but they also brought more than 100 participants to this year’s race, Goodman said.
Seven years ago, after Byrdsong’s murder, his wife Sherialyn Byrdsong founded the Ricky Byrdsong Foundation to promote community outreach programming to educate youth about appreciating and understanding diversity. The race, which started in 2000, was an event to bring together the whole community to raise awareness, as well as funds for the foundation.
Over the following years the race grew bigger and in 2005, the YWCA became a co-sponsor.
The two organizations shared the proceeds last year, Goodman said.
This past winter, Sherialyn Byrdsong decided to dissolve the foundation, Goodman said. Byrdsong felt that the foundation was formed so quickly after her husband’s death that she hasn’t had a breather during the last seven years, Goodman said.
Since the YWCA’s mission to fight racism and racial justice mirrored the mission of the foundation, Byrdsong handed the full production of the race over to the YWCA, Goodman said. Sherialyn is still actively involved in the race. On Sunday, she spoke to the runners as they lined up and she also blew the starting horn.
“We are happy to keep the race’s name and to use the proceeds to support the work of the foundation,” Goodman said. Reach Anna Prior at [email protected].
