What happens when a community comes together to talk about issues of race and racism? This hour, we find out how one Southington, Connecticut group is helping facilitate conversations between residents and town officials.
Erica Roggeveen Byrne, founder of Southington Women for Progress, joins us. We also sit down with Oliver Scholes of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut. And we want to hear from you.
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GUESTS:
- Erica Roggeveen Byrne - Founder of Southington Women for Progress, a non-partisan group based in Southington, Connecticut (@eroggbyrne)
- Tim Connellan - Superintendent of Schools in Southington, Connecticut
- Oliver Scholes - Program Coordinator for the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut
- Jacqueline Rabe Thomas - Reporter with The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica’s state reporting project (@jacquelinerabe)
READING LIST:
Record-Journal: Race relations discussed in Southington as group seeks to combat discrimination - "outhington Women for Progress held a discussion on race Wednesday, which was attended by six Town Council members and two Board of Education members. Facilitators from the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford led a discussion on why 'color blindness' doesn’t work. The discussion started with the group’s definitions of race, racism, equity and other terms as well as ground rules for the evening’s conversation."
The Connecticut Mirror:Increase in minority teachers not keeping pace with influx of minority students - "Twenty-three school districts last school year didn’t have a single minority educator on staff, state data show. Several districts have had an all white staff for years."
Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
