With help at Scott AFB, Belleville Center for Racial Harmony brings back Peace Festival
After a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the vision of a former Belleville high school student will return for 2021.
The Center for Racial Harmony’s sixth annual Peace Festival will be held at Shiloh Community Park at 1 Park Drive on Saturday, Sept. 25, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Donna Moody, the president of the Center for Racial Harmony, said attendees should expect music, games, spoken word, live entertainment, and a keynote speaker.
“The festival has grown. This year we’re partnering with the United State Air Force so that’s a plus,” Moody said. “We’ve gone from Belleville to Fairview Heights and now we’re moving into Shiloh. We’re rotating the festival in hopes that in the next year we’ll have it at another location in a local city.
“We’re getting the word out and people are getting on board with wanting to bring together a diverse group of people on how we can work together as a union to promote peace and harmony in our homes, communities, and workplaces.”
Promoting peace and inclusion
The Peace Festival was originated by a former Belleville high school student named Cayla Adams.
After the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Adams wanted to bring metro-east communities and organizations together in downtown Belleville to talk about how they could cope with Brown’s death.
She wanted to call it a Peace Festival.
“She did it on her own by going to the city council meetings in Belleville by herself, getting on their docket, and making a presentation,” Moody said. “She wanted the city to part off a section of downtown for the Peace Festival just like for the chili cook-offs and October festivals.
“She was persistent for almost a year by herself, and then she decided to reach out to different organizations and the Center for Racial Harmony was one of the organizations.”
Adams’ idea was given a chance after city officials noticed her persistence — they gave her one block in front of the city’s courthouse to hold the first Peace Festival in 2014. It has grown every year since.
After Adams graduated from high school and began college in Louisiana, she asked the Center for Racial Harmony to take over planning for the Peace Festival.
The festival is now co-sponsored with Scott Air Force Base’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging committee.
“This was the first time that we’ve ever partnered for this festival,” Moody said. “They have helped us in different initiatives like in volunteer but not in a partnership.”
The partnership began when a former base commander reached out to the Center for Racial Harmony to find out what the organization does in the community, Moody said.
“I came in and met with him and his staff, shared with them some of our initiatives and they were interested in joining on the Peace Festival,” Moody said.
The history of Racial Harmony
Racial Harmony is a neutral organization that was founded in the early 1990s to work with people in the surrounding communities to have compassionate and empathetic conversations about race relations and other aspects of diversity, inclusion, and equity in schools, workplaces, and communities, said Moody.
The organization began with a group of 600 individuals from Belleville City Council, the clergy, schools, court systems, and attorneys that came together to reduce racial tensions.
“Racial Harmony positively impacts the community by getting people to talk to one another,” Moody said. “It gets people to have conversations that can dispel stereotypes and unconscious bias, it starts with conversations.”
More cultural events and programs
Other than the Peace Festival, Racial Harmony hosts several programs and events including its Back to School Fun Fair, community wellness activities, Black and White and ART All Over, and E.L.I.T.E.
“We have programs such as our dinner tables, that are now virtual due to COVID,” Moody said. “We bring a topic of discussion up and we just get people from various different areas.”
“Previously, we just focused on Belleville but we’ve branched out and now we include surrounding communities.”
Every year, the Center for Racial Harmony offers a high school senior The Racial Harmony $1,000 Scholarship. The criteria for the scholarship is applicants must be a high school senior, have a minimum GPA with a transcript, two letters of recommendation, and write an essay of 150 to 200 words answering a prompt.
This year’s recipient of the Racial Harmony Scholarship is Tristan Johnson, a graduation senior from Marquette Catholic High School in Alton.
In addition, the organization holds The Gathering in partnership with First United Presbyterian Church in Belleville. The Gathering is a program that honors kindergarten through 12-grade students for their roles in their schools, and promoting peace and harmony. The awardees are announced every year in February.
“Racial Harmony’s message is to keep conversations going, keep the dialogue going, and keep constructive communication going. To me, that’s how you keep the peace and people will talk, communicate, and listen.”
If you’re interested in becoming a member of Racial Harmony, you can visit the organization’s website and fill out the membership form.
Peace Festival Schedule
10:30 a.m. - Food vendors open
11 a.m. - Welcome
11:30 a.m. - The Gene Jackson Band
12:30 p.m. Keynote Speaker: Carol Daniel, KMOX-AM
12:45 p.m. - Scott Air Force Base Shades of Blue Band
1:30 p.m. - Poetry and trivia
1:45 p.m. - Circus Harmony
2:30 p.m. - Poetry and trivia
3 p.m. - Jazz Saxophone Rosmond “Roz” Johnson
3:30 p.m. - Closing
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.