Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. News, and Other Relevant Links
3. Featured Resolutions

Evanston has a long-standing history of being involved in denuclearization efforts.

On October 28, 1985, the Evanston City Council declared the city a nuclear-free zone with the adoption of Resolution 79-R-85, signed by Mayor Joan Barr. This resolution made Evanston the first city in Illinois to symbolically declare itself nuclear-free through a non-binding resolution. This action was part of the Evanston Nuclear Freeze campaign, led by Chairman Larry Geni, which gained significant support from the community. In the 1985 Evanston parade, which drew 80,000 attendees, the campaign featured a float with the slogan “A Beacon of Hope: Make Evanston a Nuclear-Free Zone.”¹ The original petition to declare Evanston nuclear-free garnered over 5,000 signatures². Resolution 79-R-85 is a “Declaration of the City of Evanston as a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone,” emphasizing that “it is imperative to the preservation of human life to prevent nuclear holocaust.” The resolution prohibits the production of nuclear weapons within Evanston and bars any facility from researching, equipping, storing, supplying, or transporting any material solely for the production of nuclear weapons or their unique components. The resolution also localizes the nuclear abolition movement by highlighting the risks nuclear weapons pose to the city and its residents, whether detonated, produced, transported, stored, procured, or disposed of within Evanston.

The city’s commitment to denuclearization has continued ever since. In 2008, Evanston became a member of Mayors for Peace, an organization dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons. And in January 2020, Evanston adopted Resolution 136-R-19, which encourages the U.S. government to sign the United Nations’ Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and prevent nuclear war, the language of which follows a model for city resolutions provided by the Back from the Brink campaign. The resolution utilizes the Back from the Brink template for denuclearization legislation, encouraging the U.S. government to sign the TPNW and prevent nuclear war through: renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first; ending the sole, unchecked authority of any president to launch a nuclear attack; taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert; canceling the plan to replace its entire arsenal with enhanced weapons;  actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals; and moving forward to Congress to address this resolution more broadly. The resolution also addresses that nine nuclear states hold nuclear weapons far more destructive than those used in Japan in 1945, and highlights the environmental devastation of nuclear war and the heightened risk posed by climate change.

136-R-19 was supported by many religious organizations and groups in Evanston’s area, which have consistently led local efforts around denuclearization since the 1986 declaration was passed. Given its proximity to Chicago — the birthplace of the Manhattan Project — these efforts have further attracted substantial support from social and religious institutions in the Chicago area, which have come together to form an interfaith coalition that advocates for peace. Additionally, faculty at Northwestern University (located in Evanston), are committed to the cause of denuclearization. They include William Revelle, a governing board member for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and Hirokazu Miyazaki, who is a peace correspondent with the city of Nagasaki in Japan.

Here you will find information and resources to learn more about Evanston’s extensive history of activism and diplomacy in advocating for a nuclear-free world, as well as information about the 2020 resolution, 136-R-19.

1.  Donald M. Schwartz, “Evanston Becomes a ‘Nuclear-Free Zone’,” Chicago Sun Times, October 29, 1985; Nuclear Free America Records, Box 6, Folder 13, VAlley Library, Oregon State University.  
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2. Larry Geni, Chairman, Evanston Nuclear Freeze Campaign, to Nuclear Free America, n.d., Nuclear Free America Records, Box 6, Folder 13, Valley Library,  Oregon State University. ↩︎