For Sherlynn Reid, 80, and her late husband Henry, the whole world was a stage to play out their visions of racial harmony — even the backyard.
“When we moved into our house [in Oak Park in 1968], the community didn’t seem to have a problem with my kids, because the people who owned our home before us would always keep locks on the gate,” said Reid, who majored in drama and speech at Fisk University in Tennessee.
“My kids wanted to get out in the alley and play with the other kids, so I took the locks off the gate and welcomed the kids into our yard, where we had a small log cabin,” she said. “The white kids had never been able to play with that, because they couldn’t get in there with the other owners. So, when I invited them into the yard to play, they were so happy.”
Reid is a long-time supporter of the Communication Arts, Speech and Theater program (or CAST for short) at Percy Julian Middle School. Reid said that the program, which turns 30 this year, played a large part in cultivating the kind of openness and diversity she worked to bring about during her nearly 30 years with the village’s community relations department.
On March 13, Reid and her husband’s contributions to CAST will be celebrated at a fundraiser for the Henry E. Reid Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Marion Street Market, 100 S. Marion St. in Oak Park.
Reid and her three daughters started the scholarship fund in 1993, to “enable all children, regardless of the specific need, to participate fully in CAST.”
“In Oak Park, we wanted to have blacks and whites and others live, learn, work and play together, but we knew we had to work on it,” said Reid.
When he left his job at the Welfare Council of Metro Chicago to work at Julian as a social worker in the 1970s, Henry Reid shared the couple’s appreciation of play with the troubled students he counseled — often recommending that they participate in the program as a way to develop and mature.
“He saw the way that CAST ran their program,” Reid said. “The children didn’t just read lines and a script. They were made to understand the way the script was written. So, it was educational as well. And there were also kids who participated in the development of the scenery and the stage. There were singers and actors. For the kids who were involved, CAST changed their whole perspective.”
And it also had the ability to change her perspective as well, said Reid, who has sometimes landed roles herself in CAST productions. One of her most memorable, she recalled, was as Calpurnia, the Finches’ African-American housekeeper in To Kill A Mockingbird.
“We’d have a talk after the production, which would give the audience the chance to discuss what the play meant and why we did certain things,” Reid said. “We used the word ‘nigger’ in the play, because you couldn’t really perform it without using that word. The cast discussed why we chose to use it both before, and after, the play was performed. The discussions were really good, because [they promoted understanding].”
When asked what she thought about the honor and her work with the program, Reid said, “Honor is not something I necessarily desire. I do this, because I think it’s the right thing to do.”
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com