[SOUNDS OF MARKERS AND CONVERSATION
WOMAN: ALRIGHT, I GOTTA PLOT OUT MY NEXT LINE]
Craft supplies are scattered around an Evanston home. There’s stencils, duct tape, markers, paint, and even some paper crowns. A dozen or so people are on the ground, hard at work.
[WOMAN: THEN THIS IS GOING TO SAY DEMOCRATS EITHER SUPPORT OR FOR SOCIAL SECURITY EMPLOYEES]
But this is not a standard arts and crafts project: the group on the floor is Indivisible Evanston, and they are making signs for last Saturday’s No Kings Rally
CANDACE DAVIS: Indivisible Evanston started after the first Trump administration began because of the fear that Trump would do what he has done, which is try to destroy our democracy. So I would say we are a pro-democracy, save America movement.
Candace Davis, the host of the sign making event, is one of the five members of the Indivisible Evanston leadership team. A retired attorney, she began getting involved 5 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. For Davis and others, Indivisible Evanston and its national chapters provide a chance to get involved and make an impact in a time where they feel things are more dire than ever.
[SOUND OF PENCILS ON POSTERBOARD]
Husband and wife duo Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg founded the Indivisible Movement in 2016 The two former congressional interns helped author a 23 page handbook titled “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda” after Trump’s election in 2016. This handbook is the foundation of this grassroots movement that has captured the attention of millions of people.
Here’s one of them, 9 year Indivisible Evanston member Steven Sidell
STEVEN SIDELL: We got more and more active and more and more involved in spreading the message. And indivisible has chapters in every congressional district in the country. There are hundreds and thousands of us doing this and we’re all volunteering.
Group members have sent post cards and made phone calls to encourage progressive turnout in elections across the country.
Here’s one of the post-carders, member Jean Rumsfield who sent postcards to voters during the 2020 runoff elections in Georgia.
JEAN RUMSFIELD: We’ve done postcards from many places all over the country. it depends on what the, the, the most difficult elections that are going on in the country are.
RUMSFIELD: Yeah, makes you feel like you’re at least trying to contribute to democracy.
The group also helps coordinate and organize canvassing efforts and rallies and provides information on what to do if you spot an ICE agent, which hotlines to call, and where to look for local immigration groups. Indivisible Evanston also offers what they call “armchair actions,” or lower commitment advocacy like calling legislators, phone banking, and post carding. This way, taking action is accessible for everyone who wants to be involved. Davis says interest in the organization has grown since last November.
DAVIS: this administration has just made it clear that. No one’s gonna fix it for us. Right? So we’ve gotten more and more people signing up for the newsletter, signing up for the, for the Facebook page, coming out for the rallies.
As of now, Indivisible Evanston email newsletter subscriber list sits at just over 3000 and the group saw thousands of people at the No Kings rallies it sponsored in June and October. Sidell says the rallies owe part of their success to city resources.
SIDELL: The mayor, the police department, streets, and sanitation. They block streets off for us. They protect us, and I can’t say enough about them. They’re just incredible.
Jean Rumsfield only recently got involved with the Indivisible Evanston rallies. Given the crises across the world, she says there has never been a more critical time to get outside and get involved.
RUMSFIELD: it’s easy to stay at home and watch the news and listen to media and get upset over it and feel hopeless and helpless. And working with Indivisible Evanston makes me feel like I’m trying to do something and trying to make a difference even if it’s small.
And for Candace Davis, who has opened up her home and her life to this organization for the past 5 years, it’s about making the world a better place, one sign, one call, one rally at a time.
DAVIS: And it’s really all about the fact that we have to do something. I have grandkids who are gonna inherit this world and there’s so much wrong and it’s getting worse instead of better, and we just have to take action.
For WNUR News, I’m Sophia Casa