Chicago guides aim for racial healing with tours into city’s diverse communities

People listening to Shermann Thomas at a monument to Ida B. Wells, a journalist, educator and early leader in the Civil Rights Movement, in Chicago recently. Photos: TNS

He towered over the packed bus, standing well over 1.8m, with a head full of locks and a purple shirt proudly boasting “Chicagoan” on his chest.

“You’re getting an official Mahogany tour because the bus pulled up late,” Shermann “Dilla” Thomas joked with the crowd of onlookers.