Many of the most powerful efforts to address and solve racial inequality are local, based upon unique community histories, experiences, leadership and organizing. As an aid to these efforts, local scholars, historians and community members have created or curated reports, articles and essays which tell stories of racial inequality, and documenting the experiences and policies that sustain it. These "local histories" of racial inequality and racial segregation are a powerful tool for building awareness of the often overlooked or obscure origins of these conditions, just as larger histories of race and segregation have done nationally.
We are proud to feature three brilliant authors who have helped create reports on local histories for the San Francisco Bay Area and Hartford, Connecticut. They will not only share their stories, but also their processes and methods. We will also get into the nuts and bolts of how to create your own histories, how to find data, and how to collaborate for greater impact.
Spinning out of the Othering & Belonging Institute's "Roots of Structural Racism Project," where we continue to compile every "local history" of segregation we can find into a repository, this event will tell stories in the hopes of inspiring more people and organizations to undertake such efforts in their own communities.
Speakers
- Susan Eaton, Professor of Practice in Social Policy at Brandeis University; author of A Steady Habit of Segregation: The Legacy and Continuing Harm of Residential Segregation in the Hartford, Ct. Region.
- Rasheed El Shabazz, journalist, photographer and historian; co-author of 'Alameda is our Home': African Americans and the Struggle for Housing in Alameda, California, 1860-present
- Nicole Montojo, Housing Research Analyst for the Othering & Belonging Institute; co-author of Roots, Race, & Place: A History of Racially Exclusionary Housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Sarah Crowell (moderator), Artistic Director Emeritus, Destiny Arts Center; Strategic Partnerships, Othering and Belonging Institute