Second Baptist Church was founded in 1882 by the departure of black members of First Baptist Church (now Lake Street Church).  In 1991, the two congregations passed a unanimous vote of reconciliation, and in 2018, made a formal commitment to work together as sister churches to destroy racism in our town. Currently a joint committee explores how the two churches can collaborate in the areas of worship, music, ministry, adult and youth programming as well as racial cooperation and justice.

On January 23, 2022, Lake Street Church adopted a Reparations Resolution, stepping forward with other faith communities to support the City of Evanston Reparations Program. This program acknowledges the harm caused to African-American/Black Evanston residents due to discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction on the part of the City from 1919-1969. Funds can be awarded to support home ownership, home improvement, and mortgage assistance.

• 2022 - White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

• 2023 - Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm

• 2020-21 – America’s Long Struggle against Slavery (Great Courses: 30 episodes)

• ​2021 – Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (PBS series: 8 episodes)

• 2021 – Reparations in Evanston (Faith, Justice, and Reparations workshop: 3 episodes)

• 2021 – Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1965 (PBS series: 6 episodes)

• 2021 – The Blinding of Isaac Woodard (PBS series: 4 episodes.  The story of how the brutal blinding of returning black soldier Isaac Woodard lead to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman and eventually to the 1954 foundational civil-rights case Brown vs. Board of education.)

• 2021-22 – Native Peoples of North America (Great Courses: 24 episodes)

• 2022 – The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song (PBS series: 8 episodes)

• 2022 - Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory (PBS series: 2 episodes. The Jubilee Singers were and are a black vocal performance group who began during Reconstruction.)

• Second Baptist Church Interfaith Racial Coalition

• ​Interfaith Action Evanston (IAE) Racial Justice and Equity Subcommittee (2020 - )

• Reparations National Symposium in Evanston (2021 - )

• Memberships in NAACP Evanston/Northshore (2022 -  )

• Leadership support of the Second Baptist Church Men’s Retreat (2024 -  )​

The Rev. Michael Woolf has helped address racial justice and white supremacy in both the Alliance of Baptists and the American Baptist Churches USA.