Dupage Policy Journal

State Reps. Anne Stava-Murray (D-Downers Grove) and Janet Yang Rohr (D-Naperville), both Naperville residents, are scheduled to host a joint fundraiser on Dec. 20 at the United Center in Chicago. 

In 2019, Stava-Murray made comments that Naperville had white supremacist policies. 

Stava-Murray wrote in a social media comment, "Our history of white supremacist policies is ongoing. I’m working to change them at a state level now and hope to at a federal level. Brick by brick,” the Chicago Tribune reported. The paper also reported that Stava-Murray said “one of the areas where a lack of policy is a white supremacist policy” in Naperville is the village's alleged lack of effort to educate its residents on its history regarding racial disparities.

Her comment was made in response to a comment on her U.S. Senate campaign page that said that Naperville residents were "bullies."

Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico said in response to Stava-Murray's comment that, “I don’t think that the city can be fairly characterized in that way. In fact, it’s very much the opposite. It’s a very loving city and a very welcoming city.”

Stava-Murray later posted that she was glad that her comment was spurring discussion on the matter. 

“I think this is a very necessary conversation people need to be having in Naperville and the Chicago area because we are still so segregated,” Stava-Murray said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “There are many schools in Naperville that have almost no black students in them and many schools where there is not a single black teacher teaching.”

DuPage Policy Journal reached out to Yang Rohr for her opinion on Stava-Murray's comments, but did not receive a response.

NPR Illinois News reported that in 2019, Stava-Murray also sponsored a bill that would prevent colleges from asking applicants about their criminal history on basic application forms, but colleges would still be allowed to consider criminal history for housing and campus activities. 

The bill was ultimately rejected.