Social Justice Group hosting community roundtable event at Lane

Lane College will serve as the host site for a consortium of community members to gather to discuss issues centered on social equality later this month. Advanced registration is required to attend for organizers to have an accurate count for lunch which will be provided at the event.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Tennessee Racial and Social Justice Collective will host a community roundtable discussion highlighting issues that impact rural Black citizens in West Tennessee. The community event “Defending DEI: Anti-Blackness and Systemic Racism in Rural West Tennessee”  will take place at Lane College in Jackson from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The Tennessee Racial and Social Justice Collective comprises six regional non-profit organizations with tenets that embrace equity for all Tennessee residents. The organizations include Jackson Equity Project, Memphis Lynching Sites Project, NAACP Jackson-Madison County, Tennesseans for Historical Justice, United Way of West Tennessee and Weakley County Reconciliation Project. 

Sessions will include discussions on the diversity, equity, and inclusion concept; anti-Blackness ideology and systemic racism; health disparities among Black families; rural Black citizens and voting; understanding a living wage, and the justice system’s impact on Black Americans. These sessions will be  led by experts, researchers, and historians in healthcare, economics, criminal justice, voter advocacy, and Black American studies. 

Presenters and moderators include Dorothy Granberry, historian and retired professor of social  psychology at Tennessee State University; Learotha Williams, professor of African American and public history at Tennessee State University; Trish Olivier with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee; healthcare professional Rafielle Freeman; Danny Pirtle, professor of criminology at UT Martin; Henri Giles, assistant professor of African American Studies at UT Martin; and John Ashworth with Tennesseans for Historical Justice.

There will also be interactive discussion groups where participants can share personal stories of their lived experiences in rural West Tennessee. The roundtable discussion is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Tennessee, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Joyce Washington, president of the Weakley County Reconciliation Project, serves as the project director of the Tennessee Racial and Social Justice Collective event. This is the group’s first collaboration. 

“We all felt the need to shine a light on some of the challenges people in rural areas face and the  falsehoods surrounding DEI,” Washington said. “The issues in rural West Tennessee are quite different  from the problems in our larger cities.” She explained the need to focus on overlooked and underserved  areas in the region.

“When you factor in race, economics, and access to information and resources, the  concerns for rural residents become so much greater.” 

“Defending DEI: Anti-Blackness and Systemic Racism in Rural West Tennessee” will take place in the Kirkendoll Building at Lane College at 816 N. Hays Ave. in Jackson. Lunch will be served. 

Registration for the event is required and due by Wednesday, Sept. 25. Additional information and the registration form may also be accessed on the Facebook pages of the Tennessee Racial and Social Justice Collective, Jackson Equity Project (JEP), Lynching Sites Project (LSP), Jackson-Madison County NAACP; Tennesseans for Historical Justice (THJ), United Way of West Tennessee, and Weakley County Reconciliation Project (WCRP). 

For more information, contact weakleyreconciliation@gmail.com.