By Carter Crane –
The three-day, 30-year, memorial celebration of Reverend Robert Wesby’s death was a success by all accounts. Reverend Wesby was the minister of Progressive Baptist Church in Aurora, a civil rights leader, and marched with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
The three days included a banquet at Gaslite Manor Friday, a gospel choir performance at the Church on Barnes Road Saturday, and a speaker from Baltimore, Md., Reverend Sheridan Todd Yeary, who was the guest at the regular service Sunday.
“The musical (see photo here) was wonderful,” said Ann Wesby, a cousin of Reverend Wesby who was killed by an assassin, an itinerant man, in 1988.
“The musical was wonderful. Ex-mayor (of Aurora) Dave Pierce spoke a tribute, and money we raised at the banquet will be for our youth, for our scholarship fund.
“There were 225 or 230 at the banquet. Reverend (Jesse) Hawkins of St. John (AME) Methodist Church gave a wonderful talk and the minister on Sunday was a wonderful speaker, too.”
Ann Wesby led a group of 14 which planned, carried out those plans, and made certain everything ran smoothly in the three days.
“I need to rest a little,” she said with a little laugh earlier this week. “That took a lot out of me.”
• The Naperville Police Department and the Hoffman Estates Police Department were given praise earlier this week for their efforts in a National U.S. Department of Justice investigation which led to the conviction of 24 defendants in a massive Indian-based transnational fraud and money-laundering scheme. The scheme of a long period of time defrauded thousands of U.S. residents out of hundreds of millions dollars. The majority of the fraud was handled in telephone conversations, often with the perpetrators impersonating federal officials, especially the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Some of the convictions were up to 20 years in prison and deportation after serving time incarcerated.
• U.S. congressman Bill Foster, 11th District, will be host to a public form to discuss why a fair and accurate census is important for communities in the 11th District. The forum will be at 8:45 a.m. at 32 S. Broadway Friday in Aurora. Participants will be Celina Villanueva, youth engagement manager, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and Anita Banerji, Democracy Initiative director, Forefront, and a representative from the U.S. Census Bureau.
• The Will County Clerk’s office handling voter registration in the Aurora portion of Will County was the final signal of the end of the Aurora Election Commission.