How do we effectively engage people in our community who aren’t already predisposed to discuss race and the impacts of racism? How do we pull people into a community conversation on race? Especially people who aren’t already striving to be more antiracist? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know that the more community conversations we have, the more likely we will bring a greater portion of our community to the table… eventually.<\/p>\n

I live in a predominantly white, rural community where many people do not explicitly experience the harmful impacts of racial bias nor understand the complexities of structural racism.<\/p>\n

So I was intrigued by this email I received from a historian about the namesake of our local elementary, Thatcher Brook Primary School:<\/p>\n

“I wonder how people in town would feel if they knew that Partridge Thatcher and his wife had held people in slavery.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, how would my community react to this new information? That would become the guiding question for a community conversation that brought together students, educators, community members and historians to talk about real world, meaningful change.<\/p>\n

How it started:<\/h4>\n

I received the email in response to an inquiry I had sent to Dr. Elise Guyette. I had written to her\u00a0after hearing her on the Brave Little State podcast Remembering Vermont’s 19th Century Black Communities<\/a>, which was largely based on her research. At the end of the episode she invited people to contact her to receive her database of early Black Vermonters.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks before I had been part of the formation of the Waterbury Anti-Racism Coalition (WAARC). I had been invited due to my role in facilitating a monthly series of Race Conversations for the Waterbury Public Library. Over the course of the prior year, a few dozen community members had participated in discussions of Ijeoma Oluo’s excellent book So You Want to Talk About Race?<\/em>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, I believe in the power of dialogue about racism to help lay the foundation for transformational action.<\/p>\n

As Oluo taught me, one of the reasons racism persists is because people, particularly white people, are not able to talk about it. Learning and unlearning how racism operates are the first steps toward dismantling and disrupting it.<\/p>\n

Even so, upon learning this new information about the direct connection between the elementary school that my daughters attend and the institution of slavery, my first reaction was that we needed to take immediate action to get the name changed. But when I brought my obsessively assembled historical research to my WAARC friends, cooler heads prevailed. We were looking for inroads to raise awareness about racism and strengthen the collective antiracism commitment in our community.<\/p>\n

Rather than rush to action, we decided to use this new information as a catalyst for collective learning and coalition building. It was time for a community conversation.<\/p>\n

8 lessons learned from a community conversation on race<\/h4>\n

Now that I’m on the other side of the event, I’m happy to report that it was a success. Here are eight tips for anybody who wants to organize a community conversation about an issue related to racial justice, based on our experience.<\/p>\n

1. Form a committed planning team<\/h5>\n

It was Ellie Odefey’s idea to focus on learning, rather than pushing right away to change the name of the school. She’s a student.<\/p>\n

She’s also a member of WAARC and a student leader in the Rooted Organizing Committee<\/a> (ROC) chapter of Harwood Union High School. ROC is a student-led socially justice oriented organization based in Vermont with a presence in several secondary schools. ROC focuses on grassroots strategies that will create change “from the roots up.” One of their values is community.<\/p>\n

Ellie recruited some ROC student leaders to join WAARC members as a planning team. We had a multi-generational cross-racial group with plenty of experience organizing for change and facilitating conversations. We scheduled a weekly one hour meeting for the five weeks before the conversation. And then we were off to the races.<\/p>\n

2. Learn from others<\/h5>\n

As we began planning, we researched how other processes have played out. We looked at the powerful project-based learning approach <\/a>(.pdf) to renaming a school taken in Brookline, Massachusetts. We read up on efforts to rename schools and streets<\/a> across the nation. And we reached out to folks in Vermont such as the Rename Negro Brook Alliance for tips.<\/p>\n

Judy Dow<\/a> generously provided guidance in the early stages of our planning. She is the Abenaki educator and activist who led the effort to change the name of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award due to the links of its namesake to the eugenics movement. She drew on her experience to emphasize the importance of having the background research compiled and clearly presented. “There will be pushback. Be ready.”<\/p>\n

She also helped us understand the importance of involving students. Judy is an expert at supporting project-based learning that involves students in primary research about Vermont history. She recommended that some of the educators involved in the planning group bring the Partridge Thatcher history directly to their students.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Ellie already had a plan for that.<\/p>\n

3. Start the conversation in school(s)<\/h5>\n

When Ellie came up with the idea to make this into a learning experience, she wasn’t just talking about the community conversation. From the beginning, she wanted to bring the idea to Harwood Middle and High School students as well. She volunteered to create a lesson plan<\/a> and worked with school administrators to distribute it to all 50 advisory teachers.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

When Jonah shared Ellie’s work with the planning team, educators from other schools asked permission to adapt the lesson for younger grades. Eventually students across our district in multiple schools learned about Partridge Thatcher’s past and discussed connections to modern day racism.<\/p>\n

For me, that is such a powerful example of a student exploring a Flexible Pathway to learning. An example of a school community being able and willing to support that student’s learning. And a way to tie a student’s passion for learning to real-world, authentic change.<\/p>\n

Ellie’s lesson plan allowed students to process their own reactions and prepared them to participate in the community conversation. We hoped that they would go home and talk with their families about it as well. Because there was plenty of buzz well before the event.<\/p>\n

4. Anchor the conversation<\/h5>\n

We wanted to make sure that the conversation wasn’t purely theoretical. But we weren’t trying to organize a debate, either. We wanted people to grapple with the implications of our community’s ties to slavery and racism in a way that was respectful and learning-oriented.<\/p>\n

Educators on our planning team who had been teaching about racial justice busted out tools to support productive dialogue. We ended up using the agreements and compass from Courageous Conversations (for an example of these in action in a classroom, check out this unit on equity and identity<\/a> from 6th grade social studies teacher Christie Nold).<\/p>\n

We also wanted to make sure that people entered the conversation with the same basic historical facts at hand.<\/p>\n

In response, I developed a packet of historical information<\/a>. The packet presented the information in multiple ways, with a visual timeline, select quotes, and related background reading. Dr. Guyette provided feedback to ensure accuracy.<\/p>\n

We wanted to provide people access to the information in whatever way best suited them. For some people, the bare basics might suffice, while for others they were going to click through to the source material. And some folks may not want to read at all. For them, we created an interactive timeline.<\/p>\n

Jonah Ibson, a Harwood teacher and planning team member, worked with students to create audio clips to bring choice quotes alive.<\/p>\n