Dupage Policy Journal

The village council of Downers Grove will consider a resolution removing a member from the village library board who has clashed with its "progressive" majority.

The resolution-- "Approve the Removal of William Nienburg from the Library Board of Trustees"-- is on the active agenda for the council's Tuesday, April 16 meeting. The meeting, at 801 Burlington Ave. in Downers Grove starts at 7:00 p.m.

Nienburg, whose term expires Aug. 31, 2028, had criticized fellow board members for no longer saying the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting, demanding a "native land statement" claming white Christian men murdered and stole the land of Downers Grove be read, instead.

Nienburg also publicly opposed library board spending of $157,367 on "anti-racist" consulting, and the library's backing of a "drag queen bingo" event featuring male cross-dressing stripper, for children. He has also not posted his "pronouns" on the library board web site, along with his bio.

On Feb. 28, Democrat library board members Swapna Gigani, Carissa Dougherty, David Humphreys, Barnali Khuntia and Marti Sladek  voted 5-0 to censure Nienburg, also asking the Downers Grove Village Council to remove him from the board completely. 

Nienburg, the board's only Republican, says he was out of town and could not attend the Feb. 28 meeting.

On Mar. 5, the Downers Grove Village Council voted 4-3 to put the resolution up for a vote. Self-described "progressive" Democrat members Leslie Sadowski, Greg Hose, Chris Gilmartin and Mike Davenport voted for it and Martin Tully, Danny Glover and Mayor Bob Barnett voted against it.

In 2022, critics dubbed Sadowski "Jussie Sadowski" after she posted a letter on social media that she claimed was from sympathizers of the U.S. Confederacy angry about a drag queen bingo night she supported at the library.

The event, opposed by Nienburg and eventually cancelled due to resident protest, was to be hosted by self-described "raunchy" stripper "Tyler "TyTy" Reviglio, a 31 year-old wig stylist from Peru, in LaSalle County, 100 miles west of Chicago. 

Reviglio perfoms in bars in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood, and was scheduled to do so at the Downers Grove Library in an event under the stage name, "Aurora Devine."

"The library team, which is predominantly white..."

Nienburg opposed the work of Reesheda Graham-Washington of Oak Park, an "anti-racism" consultant who taxpayers have paid some $160,000.

For her fee, Graham-Washington produced a 12 page report that concluded Downers Grove is a "racist" town and that the library needs to replace white employees with black ones.

"The library team, which is predominantly white, is aware that it has blindspots regarding its own DEI practices and acknowledges that they need to integrate even more diversity on their team in order to further illuminate what lies beyond what they can see on their own," the report said. 

Graham-Washington said "north" Downers Grove residents were committing microaggressions against those from the south side of Downers Grove.

"A patron naming that they are from the north side of Downers Grove implies an expected level of privilege and respect that residing on the south side of Downers Grove does not imply," she wrote. "Whiteness is a social construct that significantly informs how everyone should be/act/show up in this country. Designed and informed most specifically by white males, whiteness is also often extremely patriarchal. Whiteness informs how we manage time, hold space, distribute resources, and share power (or not)."

In 2021, Graham-Washington received nearly $30,000 from a GoFundMe after claiming someone wrote a racial slur on a piece of notebook paper, taped it to a rock and then threw it through the door window of her Oak Park cafe.

Oak Park police investigated and found no witnesses. Graham-Washington told police that video cameras inside her cafe weren't turned on at the time. 

Graham-Washington also received $35,000 in forgiven Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for the cafe, which she has since closed.