Guest column: Center for Racial Harmony at 30 years. Lessons learned and the challenges ahead
Thirty years ago one rarely used the terms woke or unwoke.
Recently, woke has become a pejorative term used primarily by conservatives reflecting: “following an intolerant and moralizing ideology.”
The terms used in 1992, when the Center for Racial Harmony was founded, were different, but many similar sentiments were still seething, sometimes under the surface, other times not so much.
Since 1992 some progress has been made but what needs to be accomplished to heal the consequences of these conflicting sentiments remains formidable, but certainly not “irredeemable.”
History
In 1992 the Center For Racial Harmony, initially called simply Racial Harmony, came into being through the vision of two associate judges and a number of civic-minded individuals and community leaders. The media, principally CBS through a 60-Minutes segment, and the Belleville News-Democrat through a series of articles on the harassment of Black motorists and discriminatory hiring practices of the City of Belleville, precipitated its creation.
The name “Racial Harmony” finds its origin with one of the judges, Milton Wharton, who now sits on the Fifth District Appellate Court. An early public forum attended by 150 people at B.A.C. (now S.W.I.C.) attracted attention of the state and federal agencies, local churches and the City of Belleville, itself. Bishop (now Archbishop retired) Joseph Patrick Keleher was inspirational in this effort and personally sent out the breakfast invitation on his official letterhead over his signature. Others involved included but were not limited to Judge Wharton, Judge Robert Hillebrand, now retired; during the early years Gary Berkley (BND), Louis Tiemann (Boatman’s National Bank), Father Kelley, Bellevillians – Paul Coleman and John Kirchoff and the mother-daughter duo of Paula and Brooke Braly joined the effort. Racial Harmony found a home at TreeHut Preschool during its first few years.
In 1993, Racial Harmony solicited the participation of over three hundred churches for “Racial Harmony Sunday.” A Peace Run involving the mayors from Belleville and East St. Louis was initiated to foster greater communication and cooperation between these two cities and their respective citizenry. The City of Belleville established a Human Relations Committee to perpetuate these efforts; it still exists today.
Racial Harmony has always been an ecumenical organization. It has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism. Its members have joined those of the Jewish faith in worship to condemn anti-Semitism and atrocities at synagogues. One of its members stood to greet Muslim worshipers the Friday after the bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, while much of the country erroneously labored with misplaced belief of the nationality of the domestic culprit.
Its members have sat in churches in East St. Louis and joined with Reverend Timothy J. Chambers and the Bowtie Boys from Garland, Texas, to reflect on the 100th anniversary of the violent rampage inflicted upon the Black community in East St. Louis in 1917. The life, words and courage of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and messages of peace, brotherhood and the mutual benefit of inclusion have been repeatedly remembered through numerous guest editorials in the BND.
The distinction that evolved was the focus to maintain Racial Harmony as a third-party neutral organization dedicated to promoting understanding, cooperation and communication. It highlighted the benefits of inclusion, celebrated diversity and fostered collaborative efforts with other community organizations, municipalities, school districts and law enforcement.
Paula Braly provided insight with preschool, Mary McHugh with grade school, Lynn Clapp with middle school, a number of superintendents in local high schools, including Belleville, East St. Louis, O’Fallon, Cahokia and Mascoutah, Dr. Mark Eichenlaub with the Regional Office of Education, and numerous college professors on panels or serving on committees, such as Professor Pamela Manning, Ph.D. at McKendree University. Many of these schools provided venues for gatherings, large and small.
Open forums with panel discussions provided the opportunity for an open dialogue on a wide variety of topics. Frequently, the panels included civic leaders, religious leaders, students and, most importantly, community stakeholders. We learned from each other using the simple concept of R.O.P.E. All speakers were expected to be Respectful of others, Open to discussion, not hide how they felt, be Positive, suggesting how to move forward, not criticize others and express Empathy towards those with different lived experiences.
One session indelible in the archives of the Center For Racial Harmony was a session held at the Belleville Parks and Recreation building. While Racial Harmony had 12 panelists, including many prominent community leaders, the four student panelists stole the show. Those four panelists were asked: “What were the most important aspects of their parents which enabled them to be successful?” Neither before nor since has a more succinct description of such attributes been better compiled:
Guidance
Opportunity
Respect (both expected and given)
Expectations
Schools have played a major role in Racial Harmony They have provided venues and students for a wide array of opportunities. Youth-to-Youth programs designed by students for students, functioned for 25 years, exposing students to peer mediation, team building, problem solving and critical thinking. No minds are more creative and more open than those of our children. We have learned from each other. All we really had to do was listen. They even helped teach us the psychology of empathetic listening not just the words, but the understanding, meaning and feelings.
Application of lessons learned
While there are many examples of this, one with the greatest impact and relevance is the lesson our brains operate on a two-model system of cognition. Simply stated, System 1 is automatic and effortless – it provides the capacity to function with speed, unconscious pattern recognition, rote skills, substantial use of assumptions and chunked information.
System 2 is the cognitive processing mechanism – while at times slow and ponderous, it provides for intellectual and conscious formation of thought processes, including forming and following rules, processing diverse perspectives, attributing values and making both objective and subjective tradeoffs.
What becomes obvious from the students’ discussions was that while biases, preferences and predilections influence the lens of each system, they dominate System 1 and rarely moderate without the involvement of System 2. Students rarely use the terms woke or unwoke, but easily recognize who listens, who is judgmental and who is entrenched in their beliefs or those of their tribe.
As Aldous Huxley so aptly stated over 90 years ago, in “Vulgarity in Literature: Music at Night:
“A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle aged habit and convention.”
The development of students’ cultural competence, pluralistic orientation, the ability to work cooperatively with diverse people and the openness to having their views challenged was inspirational and instructive. Neither tribalism nor obtaining their information exclusively from one source dominated most discussions.
If only the rest of us, both the woke and the unwoke, could learn from their approach in problem solving. If we do not, we will subject ourselves to the following warning from Robert Browning: “As is your sort of mind, so is your sort of search, you’ll find what you desire.”
While the public forums, dinner meetings, training workshops and presentations have always been a part of Racial Harmony, a Community Wellness initiative was undertaken over the last five years to help facilitate the aspirations of each individual and enhance opportunities available. These collaborations include Healthier Together, Juvenile Justice, Youth Coalition, Belleville Community Development Network, Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce, East Side Aligned, Our Brother’s Keeper, I See Men, and Metro East Pride (MEPSI).
A special recognition is due Commander Christopher Robinson SAFB for his leadership and cooperation, the Illinois Supreme Court Task Force on Mental Health, and Dana Rosenzweig, director of the 708 Board, for their efforts regarding substance abuse, suicide prevention and co-occurring mental health and behavioral disorders.
Just imagine our community as one of active, trained volunteers whose talents have been identified, inventoried, delegated, and used with efficiency by coordinating the outreach programs of our churches, service organizations, civic organizations, schools, healthcare and behavioral health providers, in a truly collaborative effort (services supplementing and complementing those provided by the local, state and federal agencies).
Recently, Nathan Dyer, presently a scholarship student at the University of Illinois, helped the City of Belleville to develop the “Volunteer Accelerator” designed to effectively match volunteers with community organizations in search of volunteers, and the truly outstanding and transformative C.A.V.E. (Center for Academic and Vocational Excellence), operated by Belleville 201, has opened.
2022 represents the 30th anniversary of the Center For Racial Harmony. No event demonstrates the positive effect on the community more than the annual Gathering. Racial Harmony came close in the years it celebrated the Phenomenal Women of Metropolitan St. Louis, followed by years celebrating both men and women with the ELITE (Extraordinary Leaders Impacting Today’s Environment) Award. Our community and its stakeholders have honored and celebrated the work and dedication of those adults who make a difference.
To appreciate the full impact of the Gathering, start by visualizing schools - preschools, kindergartens, grade schools, middle schools and high schools - as separate nomination panels. Next gather the nominees physically (or during COVID, virtually), their parents, their siblings, their grandparents, their teachers, their principals and superintendents on a Sunday afternoon. Next, enjoy the voice of an exceptional soloist, watch the performance of Harambee from Belleville West High School and the award of a college scholarship to a graduating senior.
Finally, watch each of the 40+ awardees go down the aisle of First United Presbyterian Church, joined by their teacher/administrator and receive a Certificate, a medal and a gift certificate while listening to Lynn Clapp (former educator and principal in Vertical Performance) regale the audience with the reason why each student was selected.
It simply doesn’t get any better than that.
Conclusion – the Challenge
What if we followed the example of our children and sat down civilly with each other to envision a community focused on universal wellness, individual responsibility and mutual interests, not tribalism nor rote political adherence? Neither woke nor unwoke, but acting with reason, compassion and kindness to one another.
The Center For Racial Harmony thanks the entire community, the BND, all our contributors (large and small) and all those who have walked beside us for the last 30 years. We look forward to your continued support and to future collaborations. To use the theme from the 2022 Gathering: “Sowing Seeds of Peace, Celebrating Our Differences and Establishing Common Ground.”
Peace and Blessing to all our friends on our 30th Anniversary.
This story was originally published October 13, 2022 at 2:22 PM.