She went to the party and it went well.

"By Monday, all of my new friends started to tell me: ‘Hey, so don’t feel bad if you can’t come to my birthday because my mom said that there’s already too many people in our class," Lane-McGee said.

Another classmate had a birthday that following week.

"[The friend] said: Hey, I’m having a birthday party but don’t feel bad – you’re still my friend – but you can’t come because my dog is afraid of black people," Lane-McGee continued. "And then, more excuses came. People would make plans around me."

Numerous other speeches describing their own experiences of racism directed at them, discussing privilege and related topics were given to the estimated crowd of over 200 people attending the rally at Memorial Park.

Among them were Illinois Rep. Karina Villa; Devin Couturier, who also spoke at the Batavia BLM rally; Isabella Irish, who organized the rally in Batavia and other recent Kaneland High School graduates.

Several attendees held signs with messages that included "Evil thrives when good people do nothing," "Opening our hearts and minds to end racism" and more.

"My kids are fully grown," Traci O’Neal Ellis, the human resources director for the Illinois Math and Science Academy, said in a passionate closing speech to the rally. "And yet, when I talk to them and I know that they’re leaving and going to be out-and-about doing their lives, I always tell them ‘come home alive’. Because that’s the talk that black parents have."

"And, at 26 and 30 [years old] for them, I’m still telling them that," O’Neal Ellis continued. "But, when I left out this morning, my 26-year-old looked at me and said ‘mom, come home alive’ because that is the black experience in America."

The Elburn rally was primarily organized by 18-year-olds Bethany Duffey and Izzy Mohatt. Both are recent Kaneland High School graduates.

Duffey and Mohatt were inspired to spearhead the effort after attending the Batavia rally last week and learning that event was organized by someone their age.

"It was really inspiring to us to see that 18-year-olds can do this too, and that you don’t have to just be an older politician or something like that, " Mohatt said. "We can also start making a change at a very young age."

"I think [the turnout] was more than I hoped," Duffey said. "I was not expecting this turnout, especially from Elburn. I know I went to the Batavia one and there were hundreds of people, but this was very good for Elburn. I feel like it was amazing."