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African American Legacy Project Promotes Community Dialogue
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
Last week, the African
American Legacy Project introduced its initiative to enhance
communication between law enforcement officials and the
area’s communities of color. The initiative, “Voices,” will
bring together a police official and a community resident
for one-on-one lunch meetings to share their thoughts on the
state of relations between the two groups. The meetings will
be videoed in order to share with the community at large.
According to Robert Smith,
director of The African American Legacy Project, “We are the
architects of tomorrow … We have to challenge ourselves to
find solutions, which will allow our community to move
forward to create a better future for succeeding
generations.”
The concept is to bring
different generations, cultures and experiences together to
share their “voices.”
During a press conference
at Jerusalem Baptist Church, the AALP members, along with
Toledo Police Chief George Kral, Oregon Police Chief Mike
Navarre and Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp, spoke about the
reasons for “Voices” and how the project will proceed.
“We have witnessed a civil
war between police officers and the black community,” said
AALP Past Honoree and facilitator Bill Harris during his
opening remarks. “Many involved in such shootings are not in
jail or even charged. What can we do in our city?”
Harris explained that the
goal of the “Voices” project is to assess current
relationships and to discuss what “we can all do together.”
“We have to acknowledge
mistakes and try to figure out how to proceed,” said Smith.
“’We all do better when we work together. Our differences do
matter, but our common humanity matters more,’” he added
citing the words of former President Bill Clinton.
According to the
literature assembled by the AALP, “the purpose of this
project is to stimulate conversations about moving toward
change … and to diminish stereotypes that have helped build
walls between community and police.”
Sheriff Tharp, who has sat
for such a chat with Larome Myrick, executive director of
Juvenile Correctional Services for the State of Rhode
Island, echoed those sentiments. “We want to bring the
community and law enforcement together,” said Tharp, “so
that we can understand each other. So many law enforcement
officers that I know do not know the cultures of the
community and the more we can learn, the safer the community
will be.”
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