CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- With help from its residents, a Naperville history museum is looking to tell the story of recent protests over racial inequality through artifacts.
Many of the city’s shops were boarded up after some rioting and looting, but what followed was an outpouring of positivity.
“The Hearts for Peace movement came out and started to put paper hearts up,” said Rena Calabrese, President and CEO of Naper Settlement. “In terms of saying, ‘We care. We understand that this is an important social justice movement and we care.’”
Naper Settlement joined the leaders of Hearts for Peace to collect some of the paper displays for preservation on Tuesday ahead of potential thunderstorms in the area.
“We take these pieces, we preserve them and then we start to think about what does an exhibit look like? How can we get people to really communicate what they are feeling through these artifacts?” Calabrese said.
Along with the hearts, Calabrese said that includes broken glass from stores, gloves used in the cleanup, or even personal journal entries.
“We really need the community to help us collect," she said.