Steven Rogers wrote a famous letter to his white friends in 2021. Now he’s reclaimed a property in Evanston where Black families had been pushed out.

Evanston resident Steven Rogers penned the 2021 book “A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues: What You Can Do Right Now to Help the Black Community.” Released on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s killing, it offered practical guidance on how to improve Black and white racial relations, including white people sharing generational wealth that’s been denied to the Black community by governmental policies such as slavery, segregation and redlining. He also asked that Black people use their money to support Black-owned ventures in an effort to help their own. Now Rogers, an Englewood native, is doing just that as the new owner of Evanston’s Second Church of Christ, Scientist. Rogers purchased the property at 2715 Hurd Ave. in December 2022 after learning about the history of the land on which the church’s parking lot sat.