COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Less than a day after having helped oust State's Attorney Anita Alvarez from office, young black activists in Chicago said they are just beginning to transform the system they say oppresses them.
The network of activists and protesters who have worked for change since the Laquan McDonald tape went public secured a significant victory after Alvarez was handily beaten by Kim Foxx on Tuesday.
RELATED: 'BYE ANITA,' HOW CHICAGO'S ACTIVISTS FOUGHT FOR ALVAREZ'S LOSS
But the activists said at a news conference Wednesday that Alvarez's ouster is the first step in building a more just and equal Chicago.
"Anita Alvarez was just one brick." said Page May, an activist with Assata's Daughters, a network or grassroots, feminist activists. "We have a lot more work to do."
Alvarez has been in the protesters' crosshairs since the earliest marches in Chicago, where protest leaders and others with signs asked for her resignation as well as that of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's and former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
Demonstrators were angry that Alvarez waited more than 400 days to charge the officer who killed McDonald, and only announced charges the day before the dashcam footage showing McDonald's death was to be made public.
But when activists saw that challenger Foxx was projected to lose to Alvarez as recently as February, they decided to take a much more active role in the primary election that concluded Tuesday.
"I was not prepared to sit aside and watch Anita Alvarez reclaim a seat that she does not deserve," said Veronica Morris-Moore, an organizer with Fearless Leading By Youths.
The young activists then assembled a network to demonstrate their displeasure with Alvarez. Activists would protest outside of Alvarez fundraisers and rallies, and made social media campaigns like #ByeAnita to drum up support for her ouster.
With Foxx securing 58 percent of the vote, the activists declared their efforts a success.
But they said their work is just getting started.
And their opposition to Alvarez should not bee seen as an endorsement of Foxx, the activists said. The group sees the state's attorney's office as one that is institutionally racist, and the institution that oppresses black people cannot be the institution to liberate them, Morris-Moore said.
"Kim Foxx is a gatekeeper of that system," she said. "We are working to destroy that system."
The group has tangible goals it still would like to achieve. For example, the activists have had a presence at every Chicago Police Board meeting to call for the firing of Dante Servin, the officer who fatally shot Rekia Boyd while off-duty.
The group also wants to reduce the budget of the police department, which they said accounts for about 40 percent of all revenue that gets spread throughout the city budget. Using some of those funds in communities could uplift minorities while also reducing crime.
"We shouldn't have had to put in the blood, sweat and tears we that we did," May said. "Black lives matter only if we make them matter."
Black Youth Project 100 released a statement following the election, thanking activists and asking Foxx to work with them to create a more just Chicago.
"We expect the culture of police impunity to end with you," the activists said in a statement. "If not, our membership is ready to organize and hold you accountable, too."
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