Thousands of runners and families filled Evanston's lakefront on Sunday, June 21, 2026, for the 27th annual Ricky Byrdsong Memorial Race Against Hate, honoring Northwestern University's first Black men's basketball head coach 27 years after his murder.

The Father's Day event raised nearly $40,000 for racial equity and violence prevention programs run by YWCA Evanston/North Shore, according to CBS Chicago.

Byrdsong coached the Wildcats from 1993 to 1997, leading them to a National Invitation Tournament berth in his first season. On July 2, 1999, he was shot while jogging near his Skokie home with his two children, ages 8 and 10. The gunman, white supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, went on a multi-state shooting spree that killed two people, including Byrdsong, and injured ten others before Smith killed himself on July 4, 1999.

His widow, Sherialyn Byrdsong, founded the race as a direct response to that violence. She told ABC 7 Chicago that the tradition grew from how the family and neighbors grieved together.

"We walked through this neighborhood every night, it was a way for us to come together to show our love and support for one another and it was how we grieved," she said.

Sherialyn Byrdsong said the race declares that all of humanity is one race against hate, regardless of skin color, religion, or cultural background.

Cherese R. Ledet, president and CEO of YWCA Evanston/North Shore, said community itself is the strongest response to hate. The organization hosts the annual 5K and 10K, which has included both distances since the event's 10th anniversary in 2009.