Sacred Conversations Speaker Series
Sacred Conversations: Exploring Race and Community
The death of George Floyd and other acts of injustice last year shocked public consciousness across the U.S., causing many people to ask “What can I do?” to address persistent racism, poverty, and discrimination. In that spirit, St. Peter’s parishioners formed a committee to address that question in our own community. Some of the committee’s efforts were focused externally, in partnership with other groups, and others were focused internally, to build our own understanding of the challenges before us.
Our outreach to date has included work with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis and a growing relationship with Pastor Andre Alexander, leader of Tabernacle Church and Tabernacle Development Corporation in the JeffVanderLou district of St. Louis. (Tabernacle was featured in a major Post-Dispatch article on Sunday, January 11.)
We are pleased to announce Sacred Conversations: Exploring Race and Community, a series of speakers, books, films, and discussions for the people of St. Peter’s. This began in October with a Rector’s Forum presentation by Blake Strode, executive director of Arch City Defenders, an organization providing legal services to disadvantaged citizens in St. Louis. Going forward, the Sacred Conversations series will feature a Rector’s Forum speaker on 2/28, 3/28, 4/25, and 5/23 - and possibly one or two informal discussions on weeknights each month.
Last week, we had a great turnout for our first Sacred Conversations guest speaker, Dr. Terry Jones. If you missed his excellent presentation, you can access the recorded Zoom here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iyxKghbmxg&t=43s
With Dr. Jones' help, we have compiled a list of resources related to our conversation. This list and other resources can be found on our Anti-Racism Resource page.
A note from Dr. Jones on resources: “Based on brevity (under 125 pages), availability (on the Internet), and readability, I would select the Health Equity Network’s Segregation in St. Louis and Richard Rothstein’s The Making of Ferguson.”
During his talk, Dr. Jones also recommended Troubling the Waters by Jerome Morris, which focuses on education.
A useful website: https://colin-gordon.sites.uiowa.edu/
Interesting articles:
- https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/closing-doors-race-and-opportunity-in-st-louis-schools
- http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/algebra-of-inequality-in-public-schools/article_4652c71d-7e4e-5e54-94e3-6b597e952c23.html
- https://uncf.org/pages/K-12-Disparity-Facts-and-Stats?gclid=Cj0KCQiAx9mABhD0ARIsAEfpavQ7TdOjrHDReds_RCgVAXdTH1KCR_IPQVvDbk0LchEypJjd_htaok4aAp1hEALw_wcB
- For Historic Context: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/cultural-resources/preservation-plan/part-i-african-american-experience.cfm
When we asked Dr. Jones what WE could do to improve education equity in our area, he said: “Get involved with policy on a local level!” So here you go:
https://www.ladueschools.net/
https://www.slps.org/
or google your local district.