Chicago Shooting News Live: A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at least six people, wounding at least 30 and sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fleeing in terror, police said. The suspect remained on the loose hours later as authorities scoured the area and police surrounded a home listed as his possible address.
The July 4 shooting was just the latest to shatter the rituals of American life. Schools, churches, grocery stores and now community parades have all become killing grounds in recent months. This time, the bloodshed came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.

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6 dead, 30 hurt in shooting at Chicago-area July 4 parade

A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at least six people, wounding at least 30 and sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fleeing in terror, police said. Authorities said a man named as a person of interest in the shooting was taken into police custody Monday evening after an hourslong manhunt in and around Highland Park, an affluent community of about 30,000 on Chicago’s north shore.

Griner sends letter to President Biden pleading for his help

Brittney Griner has made an appeal to President Joe Biden in a letter passed to the White House through her representatives saying she feared she might never return home and asking that he not “forget about me and the other American Detainees.” Griner’s agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas said the letter was delivered on Monday. Most of the letter’s contents to President Biden remain private, though Griner’s representatives shared a few lines from the hand-written note.

Sydney floods impact 50,000 around Australia’s largest city

Hundreds of homes have been inundated in and around Australia’s largest city in a flood emergency that was impacting 50,000 people, officials said Tuesday. Emergency response teams made 100 rescues overnight of people trapped in cars on flooded roads or in inundated homes in the Sydney area, State Emergency Service manager Ashley Sullivan said.

Quake in Andaman & Nicobar

“An earthquake of magnitude 5.0 occurred at around 5:57 am, 215km ESE of Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar islands, today,” says the National Center for Seismology

Three people killed, one injured in Himachal Pradesh

“The deaths were caused by a truck ramming into a house in Mandi early morning today,” says Ashish Sharma, Additional SP, Mandi district Police

FBI to assist in search for Illinois shooter

The FBI is assisting with the search for Robert E. Crimo, III, sought for his alleged involvement in the shooting of multiple people at a July 4, parade in Highland Park, Illinois

FIR registered against BJP MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Bilaspur

Rathore and four others are accused of sharing doctored video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on social media.
“FIR registered against five persons under Sec 505 of IPC,” says Parul Mathur, Senior SP, Bilaspur (04.07)

Singapore President, Parliament Speaker, and minister test positive for COVID-19

Singapore President Halimah Yacob, Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin, and Minister Edwin Tong have tested positive for COVID-19. Madam Halimah, 67, said in a Facebook post on Monday, “Just tested positive for Covid-19 with mild flu-like symptoms. Thankfully, I have been vaccinated and boosted. I hope to recover soon and am sorry to have to miss the events this week.”
Tan, 53, also, in a post on Monday, said that he had tested positive for COVID-19, reported The Straits Times.

AIDC, Singapore’s Surbana Jurong ink pact for Guwahati development

Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) and Singapore-headquartered Surbana Jurong on Monday signed a ‘letter of intent’ for urban infrastructure development works here. The agreement was signed in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Singapore Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the CM’s Office said in a release.
Speaking at the event, Sarma stated that the signing of the ‘letter of intent’ would add a new strength to the ‘organic relationship’ between Assam and Singapore.

Two Rajasthan cops suspended for beating up man in police station

An Assistant Sub-Inspector of police and one head constable of Rudawal police station of Bharatpur were suspended for allegedly beating up a man in a police station. The victim accompanied a woman who had gone to the police station to register a criminal case on June 2. After a complaint was made to SP Bharatpur, the action was taken.

Uzbekistan says 18 dead in Nukus unrest

Uzbek authorities said Monday 14 civilians and four police were killed in mass unrest that erupted in the capital of the Karakalpakstan over a proposed new constitution that would strip the region of its right to vote on secession. Rustam Dzhurayev, commander of the National Guard for the region, said that 243 people were injured in the clashes Friday and Saturday in the city of Nukus. He said 516 people were arrested.

Congress leaders discuss strategy for Gujarat elections

Top Congress leaders met on Monday to discuss the party’s strategy for the Gujarat elections slated for later this year. During the meeting of the Congress task force with state leaders from Gujarat, which lasted over four hours, a strategy was finalised to highlight the BJP’s failures in the state and the Centre, sources in the party said.

Shiv Sena chief whip issues notice to MLAs of Uddhav camp for not voting for Shinde in trust vote

After winning the trust vote in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena on Monday night issued a notice to 14 legislators from the Uddhav Thackeray camp for violating a whip issued by Shiv Sena chief whip and Shinde loyalist Bharat Gogawale.The notice, however, excluded the name of Aaditya Thackeray, son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, “out of respect”. The whip issued by Gogawale had asked all the MLAs of Shiv Sena to vote for Eknath Shinde in the trust vote.

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TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Blue Jays first base coach Mark Budzinski will be away from the team following the death of his eldest daughter. Julia Budzinski was 17.

“The Budzinskis have been part of our Blue Jays family over the last four seasons,” general manager Ross Atkins said in a statement Sunday. “This devastating loss is felt by our entire organization and we grieve alongside Bud and his family. I have known Bud for more than 25 years and have always admired his commitment as a dad and husband first. He is loved and well-respected by our entire clubhouse and holds a special place in all our hearts.”

The Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays lined up along the foul lines before first pitch Sunday for a moment of silence. Rays manager Kevin Cash said his team was “heartbroken.”

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who roomed with Budzinski during his minor league career, expressed support for his grieving friend before Detroit hosted Kansas City on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Red Sox manager Alex Cora offered a similar message from Chicago, where his team was facing the Cubs.

Bullpen catcher Luis Hurtado coached first base in Budzinski’s absence.

Budzinski and manager Charlie Montoyo left the dugout in the third inning of the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against Tampa Bay. The Blue Jays’ clubhouse was closed after the 11-5 loss.

Budzinski played four games for Cincinnati in 2003 and retired in 2005. After managing in Cleveland’s minor league system, he joined the then-Indians big league staff in 2017. Toronto hired Budzinski in November 2018.

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PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. – A Chicago man is accused of multiple counts of credit card forgery after police were called to a Pleasant Prairie Target on June 26.

An employee at the Target told police that someone they suspected of committing fraud at multiple Target locations was in the store. 

Outside the store, police spoke to that suspect – since identified as 39-year-old Mamadou Diallo. According to a criminal compliant, Diallo used a debit card to buy gift cards at the Target, but the last four digits stamped on the debit card were different from the last four digits listed on the receipt. Police scanned the debit card’s magnetic strip, which showed account information belonging to someone else. 

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In Diallo’s car, the complaint states, police found receipts for gift card purchases from other southeastern Wisconsin Target stores. Officers also found nine other debit or credit cards that, upon scanning the magnetic strip, were found to not match the name or account number stamped on the face of the card.

Officers also found a credit card scanner in Diallo’s car, per the complaint. Police said credit or debit cards’ magnetic strips can be reprogrammed with incorrect information.

Pleasant Prairie Police Department

In all, Diallo is formally charged with 10 counts of financial transaction card forgery – otherwise known as credit card forgery – and one count of improper credit card scanning device possession.

Diallo made an initial court appearance on June 28, and is due back in court on July 5.

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CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago man pleaded guilty Friday to taking part in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 of last year.

Court records confirmed that Athanasios Zoyganeles pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

 Zoyganeles was charged back in February, after the FBI spent more than a year building its case using social media. Zoyganeles also talked with CBS 2 the same day as his arrest, and insisted he didn’t do anything wrong.

“They’re trying to make me a super-bad guy, and that’s not the truth,” he said.

Zoyganeles said in February that he did not commit any crime on Jan. 6, 2021 when he went to Washington, D.C.

“I was with the people, and I went up to the Capitol, I went to the door, and I left,” Zoyganeles said.

But federal prosecutors said they had evidence to show otherwise. A criminal complaint indicated that a tipster provided the FBI with a screenshot of Zoyganeles’ Facebook page, and the tipster also said “this guy” went inside the Capitol and posted a “very creepy” video of him in the Capitol saying, “Nazis, where are you?”

The tipster said Zoyganeles was in a group that went into offices during the riot, and was seen in the video saying, “Let’s clean up,” before going through books and files, the complaint said.

On Jan. 17 of last year, a second tipster directed the FBI to video on Zoyganeles’ Facebook page and sent a screenshot, the complaint said. The tipster said the video was taken on the Capitol steps and the screen shot showed faces in the crowd, the complaint said.

A third tipster then called the FBI said Zoyganeles went into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the complaint said.

Meanwhile, an investigation showed Zoyganeles had made reference to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6 in public Facebook posts, the complaint said.

The complaint further said records obtained from Facebook also revealed that on two separate live videos posted by other users, Zoyganeles commented, “We need to take over the capital (sic) building tomorrow,” while the following day in response to a concerned Facebook user, he wrote that he “rushed the capital (sic) and lost everyone I was with[.]”

The complaint said in the same conversation, Zoyganeles said further: “No im done i was teargassed maced and they were throwing flash bangs at me but I still stayed on the front lines.It wasn’t easy but we did it.”

The FBI also found a publicly available video in which Zoyganeles is seen standing outside the Parliamentarian Doors in the Capitol while smoking a cigarette and holding a piece of wood, the complaint said. Video also shows him going through the Parliamentarian Doors and taking photos or video on the other side, prosecutors said.

In October 2021, the FBI met with a close member of Zoyganeles’ family, who identified him in images of the Capitol insurrection, the complaint said.

Speaking to CBS 2 in February Zoyganeles did not acknowledge any of the social media pictures and videos that appear in the federal criminal complaint.

“There was a million other people there – and why’d they pick me out of everybody else?” he said.

In the Chicago area, more than a dozen defendants have faced charges of taking part in the Capitol riot.

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More than two dozen young people on Wednesday were recognized as the first graduates of the Circuit Court of Cook County’s Restorative Justice Community Court in Englewood. 

The participants spent six to nine months learning conflict resolution and job skills, as well as receiving emotional support.  

Michelle Day, founder and CEO of Nehemiah Trinity Rising, is a lawyer, certified mediator, minister and serves on the Governor’s Task Force on Children of Incarcerated Parents.

Through Nehemiah, Day helped draft the restorative justice implementation plan for Chicago Public Schools.  

Day says that restorative justice is much more than an alternative to punishment, or a way to address harm by bringing two sides to the table to talk. It’s a model for living.

“If it is implemented in our communities as a way of life, then we will have the result of having a lot less conflicts, a lot less situations that have to be addressed through restorative justice,” Day said

In July, Chicago is playing host to the 8th Annual National Association of Community and Restorative Justice Conference. Day says the breadth of conference-goers expands every year.  

“You have persons there from the faith and spirituality sector. You have people there from the government sector, from courts to government offices,” Day said. “You have people there from schools and amazingly a number of companies have started using Restorative Justice.

“As a former labor and employment lawyer, I can tell you it would’ve been helpful for people to know how to speak to people and how to treat people in ways that prevent issues,” she added.

The conference runs July 6-9.

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DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver couple got the surprise of a lifetime when the Stanley Cup was mistakenly delivered to their doorstep. 

Kit Karbler and his husband were at their home Tuesday when they noticed a vehicle stopped outside their house. 

“It looks like a contractor or something,” Karbler told Nexstar’s KDVR. “I didn’t know. And a fella comes to the door. He’s got long, kind of gray hair, parted and he’s very friendly … And he comes right in and they’re looking, the truck is backed up and they’re looking to bring in the trophy.”

Colorado Avalanche set records with Stanley Cup win

They were looking to deliver the Stanley Cup trophy, that is.  

“He opened it up all the way, said go ahead. I lifted it up. I couldn’t believe how heavy it was. I ran my fingers over the engraving,” Karbler said. 

The one thing he did not do was take a bunch of pictures. 

“It happened so fast and they were so nice. I could have taken lots more photos and maybe one with the dog and the Cup. One with me. But I wasn’t thinking that way,” Karbler said. 

Because, after all, the special delivery was not meant for him. 

“They were looking for Landeskog,” he said. 

Discussing dents with the Stanley Cup’s guardian

Apparently, Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog’s residence has a similar-looking address. 

“I couldn’t believe it! All my thoughts were wide open because how could that be? Because I knew that we had Avalanche players that lived in the neighborhood but I didn’t know how close,” Karbler said. 

KDVR interviewed the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Keeper of the Cup, Philip Pritchard, Wednesday morning and he confirmed the mix-up.

“We stopped there, we couldn’t really see the number of the house, so I said we’ll just go up and knock, what’s the worst thing, they say, ‘Hi, who are you guys?’ Sure enough, I knock, ‘Hi who are you guys?’” Pritchard said.

The Cup’s path since the Avalanche won it

The Avs beat the Lightning in six games to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 21 years and very quickly dented it after it was in their possession. The team brought it back to Denver on Monday and it was passed around as they deplaned and even got some photo ops with the Denver Fire Department and other employees at the airport.

The Cup will make an appearance before the Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field Wednesday night in a ceremony for the Avalanche players and staff.

The holy grail of hockey will be on display around the streets of downtown Denver on Thursday morning for the official Stanley Cup celebration parade. And the streets of Denver will be painted burgundy and blue for the parade route.

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Fresh off an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, downstate farmer and state Sen. Darren Bailey appears to have coasted to a win in the six-way Republican contest for Illinois governor, according to unofficial results.

Bailey faces an uphill battle in November’s general election against Gov. J.B. Pritzker who easily captured Democrats’ nomination, even as he is getting national mentions as a possible contender for president in 2024.

Bailey leads the field with 54% of the vote, trailing behind are Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin at 18%, Jesse Sullivan at 17%, and Gary Rabine at 7% with about 50% of precints in, according to unofficial totals at of 9 p.m. Rounding out the field is Paul Schimpf and Max Solomon.  

Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt fortune, spent millions of dollars to boost Bailey in the GOP primary with TV ads and campaign brochures calling Bailey “too conservative” for Illinois, a phrase that helped Bailey’s bonafides with the Republican base.

Irvin, who was vying to be the first Black nominee for governor from either major party, had been an early favorite in the race, thanks mostly to $50 million from Citadel hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin, conceded Tuesday night.

The Associated Press contributed. 

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Video: Discussing the legal ramifications of the abortion ruling are Rita Gitchell, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, Carolyn Shapiro, professor of law and co-director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent College of Law, and David Franklin, associate professor of law at DePaul University. (Produced by Blair Paddock)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruling to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is unpopular with a majority of Americans — but did that matter?

The relationship between the public and the judiciary has been studied and debated by legal and political scholars. The short answer: it’s complicated. There’s evidence that the public has an indirect role in the judiciary, but that might be changing.

In the final opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the court “cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work.”

Polls following the leaked draft of the opinion show approval of the Supreme Court — which was already suffering — slumped even further, driven by those who supported keeping Roe.

The court and public opinion have clashed at times, but they’ve entered into a “symbiotic relationship” over the last 60 years, Barry Friedman suggests in his 2009 book “The Will of the People.” The court doesn’t stray too far from popular opinion.

How that happens and whether it remains true are harder to know for certain. “We don’t have a viewfinder that shows us what the justices are doing,” said Maya Sen, political scientist and professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. “It’s a complicated chicken-and-egg situation where we can try to disentangle these forces, but it’s very hard to do.”

IS PUBLIC OPINION ON ABORTION CLEAR?

Public opinion on abortion is nuanced, but polling shows broad support for Roe and for abortion rights. Seventy percent of U.S. adults said in a May AP-NORC poll that the Supreme Court should leave Roe as is, not overturn it.

Roe is one of “a handful of cases” that people recognize, Sen said, and it’s “recognized as important Supreme Court precedent.”

Only 8% in the May poll said abortion should be illegal in all cases, but many Americans support some restrictions. An AP-NORC poll last year showed majorities of adults say abortion in the second and third trimesters should be illegal in all or most cases, and opinions were closely divided over whether a pregnant woman should be able to obtain a legal abortion for any reason.

“I think many Americans believe that there should be some sort of kind of sliding scale where the right is protected and then as the pregnancy continues, then the interests of the potential life become more significant,” Sen said, adding that Roe allowed for that nuanced thinking.

DOES PUBLIC OPINION FACTOR DIRECTLY IN COURT DECISION-MAKING?

Researchers have found — and some of the justices themselves have acknowledged — that court decisions and public opinion are often aligned, but some experts say it’s probably not a direct link.

The most important thing in decision-making is justices’ “set of political and judicial philosophies that give them preferences over the outcomes of the cases,” said Joseph Ura, political science professor at Texas A&M University. “Everything else is kind of marginal around that.”

Justices themselves experience the same things that everyday Americans do, which makes it harder to assess causality.

“It’s really hard to decipher: was it public opinion that’s driving these decisions or is it just that the justices have preferences and they’re exposed to the same thing that most of us are exposed to?” said Elizabeth Lane, assistant professor of political science at Louisiana State University.

DOES PUBLIC OPINION INDIRECTLY INFLUENCE THE COURT?

Scholars point to judicial appointments and court legitimacy as potential ways that the public has indirect influence on the court.

For one, voters elect a president, who nominates justices, and senators, who confirm them.

“Over the longer run, assuming there’s kind of a reasonable rotation of the justices leaving office for whatever reason that aligns with the party’s historical alternation in power, the court can preserve its alignment with public opinion,” said Ura.

That’s been undermined recently, experts say. By chance and by political maneuvering, a larger number of sitting justices — six of them — were appointed by Republican presidents.

In their dissent, the court’s liberal justices wrote: “The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed.”

Justices may also consider how the public will receive a ruling, though the new abortion ruling makes clear some on the court don’t believe that’s an important consideration.

While the court can issue its ruling, it has to rely on other actors — the public, politicians and even lower courts — to accept and implement it, said Charles Franklin, professor of law and public policy and director of the Marquette Law School poll.

“I doubt that the justices wake up every morning and check the polls to see if people agree, but over the long haul, the court does need a level of public support as a mechanism for their rulings being enforced,” Franklin said.

The threshold of support that the court needs might be changing. A reaction from the public or elected officials has “less currency” than it used to because of deepening political polarization, Ura said. A controversial or unpopular decision won’t necessarily raise the ire of a bipartisan coalition.

DOES IT MATTER IF THE PUBLIC’S FAITH IN THE COURT IS LOW?

The court has historically enjoyed consistently positive views among the public. But polling showed confidence in and approval of the court began to dip last year, and it has worsened since the leaked draft. Does it matter if the public’s faith in the court is low?

“The idea of the legitimacy of the court was a way it could sustain itself when it ruled counter to the majority opinion,” Franklin said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently emphasized the need for public faith in the court system. Justice Elena Kagan in 2018 spelled out why: “You know we don’t have an army. We don’t have any money. The only way we can get people to do what we think they should do is because people respect us.”

Michael Salamone, political science professor at Washington State University, explained that “specific support” for the court — what’s measured in polls — can easily fluctuate with reactions to court decisions. But “diffuse support” — faith in the institution’s role in democracy — is historically resilient. It remains to be seen whether that diffuse support will suffer because of the decision to overturn Roe.

“Just based on the amount of rhetoric and the high-profile nature of so many of these decisions,” he said, “I’m wondering if we’ve perhaps reached our limit to that resilience.”

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Attendees browse the Chicago Transformation Collab festival on June 25, 2022, which featured an array of local businesses, live art and panel discussions with community leaders. (Yahya Salem / WTTW News)

Local Chicago art and a collection of Black-authored books adorned the brick walls and shelves of the revitalized Wildman Boiler and Tank building on the West Side as part of a weekend event aimed at discussing safety and justice in the city.

The decorations provided a vibrant backdrop to the event that included a summit and public festival organized by the Chicago Transformation Collab, a coalition of social justice advocacy groups and media partners ranging from the Illinois Prison Project to Teen Vogue. It was led by Zealous, a national nonprofit civic organization with the goal of ending mass incarceration in the U.S.

A 2021 report by the Prison Policy Initiative revealed that Illinois has an incarceration rate of nearly 500 per 100,000 people, a count that includes prisons, jails, immigration detention and juvenile justice facilities. Additionally, at least 173,000 people are booked Illinois’ county and local jails each year.

According to Zealous’ founder, Scott Hechinger, who is a former Brooklyn public defender, police and prosecutors have been telling misleading but compelling stories for decades about what it takes to maintain the health and safety of society, which  in his view ultimately skewed the public’s perceptions about solutions for crimes and delinquencies. Hechinger suggests that the way to combat this is by creating content that counters the criminal justice system’s narratives.

“I want folks to be telling stories that capture people’s hearts,” said Hechinger. “That make them understand as well as I do that the current system is deeply flawed, and another alternative is so obvious.”

The overarching themes of the Collab’s three-day event revolved around the role of storytelling and art in criminal justice organizing. The summit, which was strictly by invitation, included training sessions and workshops led by local activists, defense attorneys and media professionals with the aim of educating the invited participants on topics such as campaign strategies, effective storytelling, and enhancing alignment across communities and areas of expertise.

The festival portion, which took place Saturday, was open to the public and featured an array of local businesses, live art and panel discussions with community leaders. The festival’s main event was the Art In Action: Storytelling + Imagination panel featuring cast members from Showtime’s coming-of-age drama set in Chicago’s South Side, “The Chi.” The panelists were Hannaha Hall, Tai Davis, and Behzad Dabu, who also acted as the moderator.

Cast members of the Showtive series “The Chi” speak about representation and the portrayal of Chicago at the Chicago Transformation Collab festival on June 25, 2022. (Yahya Salem / WTTW News)

The panelists discussed how actors can transcend roles beyond the screen and act as catalysts for change within the film and television industry and their respective communities, specifically through authentic representation and pushing back against the outdated and inaccurate stereotypes that exist in scripts.

Dabu, who played a Palestinian named Amir on the show, received enthusiastic applause from the audience when he referred to police-washing in films and televisions shows as “copaganda,” a term used by critics of celebratory portrayals of law enforcement in the media. Dabu went on to criticize the conglomerate nature of show business, which trickles most decision making into the hands of a handful executives who, according to Dabu, lack significant diversity.

Davis, a Chicago native, and Dabu also expressed their personal convictions about holding up a mirror to the criminal justice system and those celebrating it in the arts.

“We have to address the brutality and injustice done to us by the people here to serve and protect,” said Davis. “The way you put us on blast, put them on blast, too.”

Davis was also critical of the negative representations of Chicago in the media. According to her, the exhausted portrayals of gang violence and misrepresentations of local urban communities continues to hinder real change. Her former costar concurred by referring to a 2021 New York Times quiz which asked readers to rank Chicago nationally in terms of murder rate. The options were first, third, fifth or seventh. Most readers ranked Chicago “first,” whereas only 8% chose the right answer, which was seventh.

Following the panel, the audience continued to browse and shop from the partnering local businesses and organizations.

“A lot of the youth that we work with, especially here in Chicago, they’re constantly being fed only negative,” said Olivia Tousius, program coordinator and lead teaching artist at the Simple Good, a nonprofit focused on empowering youth through social emotional learning based on arts programming.

“The future that others see for you does not have to be your destiny,” Tousius said.

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CHICAGO —  At the Ida B Wells National Monument, Chicagoans remember the woman who was ahead of her time.

An organization called the Ida B Action Committee hosted the first Ida B Wells Festival at 37th and South Langley in Bronzeville this weekend.

It was a celebration of what would’ve been Wells’s 160th birthday.

Ida B Wells was born into slavery in Mississippi during the Civil War. She documented the lynching of Black men during the 1890s which made her the target of threats.

After moving to Chicago, Wells protested the exclusion of Blacks in the World’s Fair.

She fought segregation, organized women, helped elect the city’s first Black alderman and paved the way for generations of activists.

The celebration also included a tour of sites that tell the story of Wells’s lasting impact.

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