Talks@EHC: Gatherings: The History and Activities of the Emerson Branch YMCA

Gatherings: The History and Activities of the Emerson Branch YMCA

Tuesday, February 3, 6:30 PM

Free & Open to all. Scroll down to RSVP

In-person event*
At the Evanston History Center
225 Greenwood Evanston, IL

The Emerson Street Branch YMCA served as a segregated facility for fifty-five years in
Evanston, Illinois, providing activities and services during the era of Jim Crow. Known locally as the Emerson Y, this branch not only served the local Black community but fast became the place to be. It served as a community meeting space for numerous organizations and congregations and provided needed social services. Its closing in 1969 and the eventual destruction of the building left a collective open wound within the community, while its history began to fade with each passing decade.

Join us as Gatherings author and founder of Shorefront Legacy Center Dino Robinson shares his in depth research into the Emerson Y’s establishment, impactful history, the path to its closing and demolition, and the current resolve of the Evanston Y towards healing.

About Morris E. (Dino) Robinson

 Morris E. Robinson Jr. is the author of A Place We Can Call Our Home (1996), Through the Eyes of Us (1998), the first edition of Gatherings (2004), and A Decade to Remember (2023, Shorefront Press). Robinson’s work in gathering oral histories, artifacts, and documents since 1995 led to his founding of Shorefront in 2002 and the Shorefront Legacy Center in 2010, an archive and research center that documents the local Black communities along

Gatherings is a publication of Shorefront Press.

This in-person event will also be available on Facebook Live and recorded for those who cannot attend in person.

Through our community’s generosity, we can offer these free programs! Please consider donating $10 to support our ongoing free public programming.

Please click the blue “Going” button below to RSVP. A confirmation email will be sent to the email you registered with.

If you don’t receive a confirmation email, please email Erin Hughes at ehughes@evanstonhistorycenter.org.