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Westerly Area Community Response Addressing Racism, 2019-2020 , 2 December 2020

2 December 2020

To Westerly Anti-Racism Project - Meg Celico, April Dinwoodie, Leslie Dunn, Rana Hamelin,
Kayla Kennedy, Madeline Labriola, Kevin Lowther, (and Anne Pearce)

Below is a snapshot of the towns in Rhode Island and Connecticut doing work to educate and address
systemic racism in their communities within the last year. The good news is there are many towns
having conversations, book clubs, programs and forums on anti-racism, but it is too soon to tell if these
threads of good work will sew meaningful changes in individual behaviors and policies that reduce
racial inequity.

One common thread is all the community initiatives reviewed were prompted by a racist incident, either
locally (e.g. Chrystal Caldwell's assault at the Quality Inn in Mystic, racism and name calling in school,
the n-word spray-painted on a shed in Groton), or nationally (e.g. the deaths of George Floyd and
Breonna Taylor).

I found only 3 official task forces on anti-racism - 1. Chariho School Committee est. July 2020, 2) Racial
Equity and Justice Task Force, Fairfield, est. November 2020, and 3) an anti-racism task force in
Middletown, approved by the Middletown Common Council in July 2020). They are all too new to
recommend as a blueprint for success.

The only guideline I could find on successfully organizing a local task force or community initiative to
address racism was a report titled, Community Change Initiatives to Address Racial Inequities: Building
a Field of Practice, 2007. I have listed some of their insights and recommendations at the end of this
document. 1

Summary of Towns Response Addressing Racism in Rhode Island

According to a November 2020 news report by WPRI, Channel 12 News, only 11 towns in Rhode Island
have taken steps to address racism in the past year. Westerly has yet to respond to a request for steps
taken.

RHODE ISLAND TOWNS THAT HAVE TAKEN STEPS TO ADDRESS RACISM IN THE
PAST YEAR, 2019-2020.2

Yes No Has Not Responded

Cranston Johnston Bristol
East Greenwich Narragansett Burrillville
Little Compton New Shoreham Central Falls
Middletown North Kingstown Coventry
Newport North Smithfield Cumberland
Pawtucket Smithfield Foster
Portsmouth Tiverton Jamestown
Providence West Warwick Lincoln
Warren North Providence
Woonsocket Scituate
Barrington South Kingstown
Warwick
Westerly

To address racism in Providence, Mayor Jorge Elorza created the African American Ambassador Group
in hope of bringing about deep structural change. He signed an executive order committing the city to a
process of truth, reconciliation, and reparations for Black, Indigenous, and all people of color. Elorza
also declared racism a public health threat.

In Cranston, the City Council recently voted unanimously to officially declare racism a public health
issue. Ward 3 City Councilor John Donegan has begun "community projects like gardens in
1
Community Change Initiatives to Address Racial Inequities: Building a Field of Practice, Maggie Potapchuk,
Aspen Institute Roundtable for Community Change and the National League of Cities Institute, March 2007.
2
"Rhode Island Leaders Tackle Racism As A "Public Health Threat", Chelsea Jones, WPRI, Channel 12 News, 20
November, 2020.
lower-income neighborhoods and introduced proposals about spending in businesses run by people of
color and women."

In Newport, a City Council meeting on Zoom quickly soured when someone entered the chat room with
racial slurs and hate speech directed at Ward 1 City Councilor Angela McCalla. The incident prompted
city leaders to sign their own resolution condemning hate speech and racial slurs. “What happened to
me is a symptom of what happens in our community every day,” McCalla said. Newport police were
unable to track down the person who ambushed that City Council meeting.

The town of Barrington has taken many steps to address racism and discrimination in recent months.
In February 2020, the town created an anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy. It also
established Pride month in May, and supported the removal of “Plantations” from the state name in
June. An ordinance was passed in October prohibiting housing discrimination and a Black Lives Matter
flag flies outside Barrington City Hall.

The Chariho School Committee unanimously approved a task force in July 2020, with over 120
constituents participating in their first meeting call. Hopkinton committee member Lisa Macaruso
requested the task force and Chariho Superintendent of Schools, Gina Picard, has reached out to her to
collaborate on it. Conversations continue.

Summary of Towns Response Addressing Racism in Connecticut 3

Tolland, Windsor Locks, East Hartford, West Hartford, East Haddam, and Simsbury have all held
recent discussions on racism. The Hartford Public Library hosts an antiracist book club. Over the
summer, the Avon Free Public Library hosted an antiracist cultural humility workshop.

SPIRIT (Student Problem Identification and Resolution of Issues Together), chaired by Nicole Kodak,
is a committee in Simsbury formed by the town’s board of selectmen in 2019 after two white Simsbury
High School students posed in blackface on social media. The incident led to an invitation from the
board of selectmen to the Department of Justice to engage in a series of conversations about how to
move forward. The creation of the SPIRIT Committee came out of those discussions. The board of
selectmen also adopted a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis.

In Windsor, the town’s human relations commission held its second event in a series of conversations
on race. “Implicit Biases & Microaggressions” encourages participants to examine their own biases and
how they reveal themselves, and offers advice on how to challenge microaggressions. The interactive
ZOOM event featured videos and breakout sessions with facilitators Kevin Booker Jr. and Anne-Marie
Knight. Judge Kevin Washington, who chairs the commission, said that members felt the time was right
to launch the series, which has no finite number of sessions. “If we don’t have a dialogue that allows
us to speak to one another respectfully, ask questions to increase our knowledge and hear one
another’s thoughts, then how are we supposed to move forward?” Washington said.

The Windsor town council passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis in June 2020. The
council also voted to remove a controversial statue of Maj. John Mason, who was a founder of Windsor,
but also led a massacre of Pequot Indians.

The Windsor commission created a street mural near the main library branch and the Eagle Green. The
mural, designed to promote community awareness of racial injustice issues, contains the words “End
Racism Now,” and was installed 8 November 2020.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities also recently hosted “CCM CARES — Communities
Advancing Racial Equity Series” — with community and municipal leaders from about two dozen towns

3
Hartford Courant, Article by Steven Goode, Reporter, 2 November 2020.
participating in conversations about policing issues, local public education, public health and affordable
housing. “The effects of systemic racism have consequences in housing, education, health, public
safety, wealth and nearly every other part of daily life — in fact, race is still the No. 1 predictor of
success and well-being in our country" said Joe DeLong, CEO and Executive Director.

MyCOR (Mystic Conversations on Race), a monthly reading group led by an anti-racism team from
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Mystic, began in September 2020.

In Stonington, a rally was held on 26 July 202o to stand with Crystal Caldwell, a victim of racial assault
while working at the Quality Inn in Mystic, CT. Several local politicians and activists spoke in support.

A Freedom Forum Series at Mystic Seaport was held on 20 August 2020. Len Miller, chairman of the
Discovering Amistad Board of Directors, told a group of about 100 people gathered at Mystic
Seaport Museum on conversations about race, "Since the Amistad uprising, the country has
experienced the Civil War, emancipation of slaves, Reconstruction of the South, Jim Crow Laws and
the civil rights movement. And yet, here we are again. Slavery may have ended, but not racism."4

Kai Perry, Discovering Amistad board member and lead educator, said the conversation would move to
other communities, including New London and Hartford, in the near future.

The keynote speaker, State Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson, told the gathering, "It's
as if the country is at a crossroads and what we do at the moment will determine whether we are
going to finally live up to America's ideals of equality and true justice for all, or forfeit them to the
dust bin of time."

Chief Justice Robinson, the state's first Black chief justice, said the country has not had an honest
conversation on what the institution of race-based slavery did to the United States and nothing has been
done to deal with the psychological trauma of slavery. He said a safe space must be created in order to
have conversations on race, so that people are able to speak openly and honestly, and people in the
conversation must guarantee that they are having a conversation and not a confrontation.

Pastor Joseph Coleman of St. John's Christian Church in Groton, also attended. Pastor Coleman serves
as chaplain to the Groton City police and spoke about how he must "think about race everyday."

A new task force called the Racial Equity and Justice Task Force, was created in November 2020 to
address racial biases in Fairfield. The task force appears to have been initiated by Karen Lynch, who
has seen an increase in "microaggressions towards (her) Chinese-American daughter and non-white
friends in town."

Mayor Ben Florsheim requested an anti-racism task force in Middletown, which was approved by the
Middletown Common Council in July 2020. The panel partnered with a national consultant
company, the National Conference for Community and Justice, and are waiting on a
final report recommending action in several specific areas, including education, health equity,
economic justice and policing. I will be requesting a copy of the report.

"If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not
question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges or the protected members of the middle

4
The Day, Karen Florin, Staff Writer, 20 August 2020.
class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law's protection
most! - and listens to their testimony."

- James Baldwin, (1924-1987), American writer, novelist, poet, activist

Insights and Conclusions from "Report on Community Change Initiatives Addressing

Racial Inequities, 2007"

• "Two out of three city officials say their cities and regions could do more to promote equal
opportunity, fairness, and citizen engagement. But local elected officials and community leaders
are at a loss about how to make progress on these issues." - National League of Cities, Annual
Opinion Survey of Municipal Officials, 2006.

• Community efforts that address racial injustice must be informed by knowledge - not only of racial
disparities, but of the community's history of racism and its current state of race relations and
inequities.

• Collect, analyze and share data to underscore the urgency of the action. Tell a powerful story about
racism in the community; it's hard to argue with the data.

• Do your homework, build on what is known. Collaborate, adapt, and adopt.

• Cultivate trusting relationships with diverse stakeholders - local residents, policy makers, community
leaders, power brokers. A diverse group contributes a variety of perspectives and experiences. The
local media needs to be on board to keep the issues front and center over time.

• Build bridges and keep reaching out to one another. Take time to learn about participants and build
relationships.

• Nurture and educate political allies and partners, continually.

• Resolve conflicts within the leadership group.

• Establish accountability. Seek personal commitment from leaders and participants.

• The non-profit, faith and government sectors are most consistently involved as leaders, supporters
and participants in anti-racism activities.

• Local foundations and corporations are strong supporters of community change initiatives, but have a
low rating as participants. Real estate business, housing organizations, criminal justice system and
development organizations are less involved.

• Stay the course and remain involved, keep local elected officials invested, and volunteers energetic.

Suggested Next Steps:

• Plan a virtual conversation with town and community leaders. What is Westerly's landscape - its
history of racism and current state of racial disparities; % minorities in towns, schools, and
businesses? Show how lack of diversity hurts town economically and culturally. Document personal
stories and testimonies about racism in community. We are at a crossroad. What is the path forward?
• Follow up with Erik Caswell from Mystic Noank Library and Caroline Badowski from Westerly
Library for town research and data. (Erik is from Westerly and is finishing up research on the
founding and history of Westerly.)

• Continue to reach out and build relationships with political leaders, law enforcement, health,
businesses, media, and other community leaders.

• Follow-up with Chariho School Committee's Task Force for update on what is going well and what is
not.

Anne M. Pearce,
Westerly Area, Peace & Justice, Member