Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn, Illinois are two SW Chicago suburbs to be wary of when you're driving while black.

      Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn, Illinois are two Chicago suburbs that are located on the SW part of the city. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, they were predominately areas populated with Caucasians.. These two suburbs have been notorious for stopping African Americans passing through or visiting the many places of interest in the areas. When I was a senior in high school in the 70's and 80's, my male friends would tell me stories about being stopped by police in both areas. They were sometimes stopped for traffic violations, but they were mostly stopped for other reasons.

   They told me that they were often questioned why were they there in the area. Their cars were searched for drugs and weapons. They were told that they were being watched and that they were not welcome. I listened to the stories, but couldn't relate to them because I wasn't driving at the time. My parents didn't go to those areas too often. I did notice that my father didn't venture too much to Evergreen Park He would go the Evergreen Plaza which was just a few block from the Chicago-Evergreen Park border.

   When he drove us to Oak Lawn, he would not go through Evergreen Park to get there. He would go around. I didn't have any idea how bad it was to drive in those areas until 1990. I was stopped on several occasions in Evergreen Park for various reasons. Mostly to see where was I going. In the process of being stopped, I was asked by policemen to produce my license, proof of insurance and registration. All of those items were usually up to date, so I was allowed to move on.

    Over the years, I began to see that driving in these areas were problematic. So, I would often take public transportation to Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn. African American men would talk about avoiding these areas when driving. They would say that Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn were some of the worst areas for black people to travel by car.

   I remember the time when a Oak Lawn detective ran my license plates while I was getting gas in a Oak Lawn gas station. I remember the time an Oak Lawn patrol car followed me and my family for four blocks. I realized that as an African American, I had to be on my p's and q's when driving in those areas. I am a forgiving person, so I hope that the law enforcement personnel and the administrators of Evergreen Park and Oak Lawn will lay off of African American drivers.