Police violence against John Lewis known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ resulted in a national outcry in the USA with thousands of marchers arriving in Montgomery. The Voting Rights Act became law on August 6, 1965.
Photo: Wikipedia (Public domain)
The events in this blog took place 50 years after the Selma March. Even now, the evils of racism are still with us. Can we now all cross the bridge at Selma together – just as Jenny Hodgson and I did with one of the original marchers in 2010?
I have suppressed the memory of this until now. It is New Orleans in 2010. I am working with the wonderful Dr Albert Ruesga, President of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. The issue is racial justice.
We want to make the principle of equality the main priority for the Foundation. There are many hurdles, but disparities in the city mean we must address this. The response to Hurricane Katrina has exposed the racism in the very foundations of the city.
Having interviewed each one of the 27 members of the board individually, I facilitate a half-day board retreat. It is bumpy, though gets through ‘in principle’. Now, we have to plan the practice. Here begins the voyage into complexity and meetings and power and psychology and still more complexity.
I talk to people in places that I have never dreamed of and verse myself in the city’s politics. I facilitate meetings of a foundation-led working group of around six people, mostly African Americans, who are charged with steering the project through. The group is composed of smart, dedicated people who are resourceful and willing to face the push-backs. With unswerving support from the chair of the foundation, important people begin to back what we are doing. The policy changes. I leave. It is 2013.
In 2018, I go back. In a new purpose-built building, some of the staff are the same but most are new. My homecoming is wonderful. Even people who don’t know me hug me and express their gratitude for my part in the struggle. The policy is now practice and affirmed everywhere.
A bit that I have somehow left out of my memory is something that happened mid-way through. It’s a tough time for our work which has drawn opposition from important quarters. The working group meets.
On this occasion, the committee gets emotional and goes deeper and ever deeper into the horror of being on the receiving end of racism. The stories from people’s childhoods go on and on and on. It all has to come out. People break down. The whole room is in tears. Sobs.
This is big. I am stunned and in tears myself – broken by this hurt. Yet, as a white man I feel honoured to be trusted with this. For the first time, I see the hidden depths of what has happened here. I see the all-encompassing damage that racism does. An awakening.
Declaration of interest: PSJP supported me as a volunteer in this work and paid my expenses.
Barry Knight is Secretary to Centris Trustees, a member of PSJP’s Management Committee, a regular contributor to Rethinking Poverty, and Adviser to the Global Fund for Community Foundations.