Rebecca Toews
By Rebecca Toews, Communications Manager
When Jeanne Crain stepped onto the bus for the Reckoning for Truth, Trust, and Racial Justice Tour, organized by the Center for Economic Inclusion, she felt it would be a useful experience for her as President and CEO at Bremer Bank. What she didn’t realize before she joined a cross-sector cohort of peers in Selma, Alabama, was how truly transformational the experience would be both personally and professionally.
“I was blind to so many aspects of how pervasive lynching was, and how many individuals it affected… how many individuals were unnamed, and also how [lynchings] were celebrated community events,” says Crain.
Through a series of powerful yet intimate experiential opportunities spanning four days, Crain and 46 other executives leading Twin Cities-based organizations, immersed themselves in a small sampling of the history of Black people in the United States. They traversed the historic route between Montgomery and Selma, culminating in a reflective walk across the Edmund Pettis Bridge, scene of the now infamous events of Bloody Sunday.
“I was left speechless by this experience,” says Eve Onduru, VP of Marketing and Business Development with the Center for Economic Inclusion. “As a person from Kenya, I had obviously understood that my people were taken from their homes and forced into slavery, but I had not ever come so close to the places and stories. I could feel the presence of those whose backs this country was built on.”
That is exactly the impact that Center Founder and CEO Tawanna A. Black and team had in mind when they evisioned the tours. “The tour is designed not only to share the history of racial exclusion and slavery in the United States, but more importantly, to help those in attendance to reckon with that history— to reflect with one another as a group and build accountability that will help them go back to their organizations and build truly equitable workplaces for their colleagues and employees,” says Black.
Center staff member and tour facilitator Tiffany W. Worsley said the team wanted participants to sit in the truth of America from a physical and heart position. “We wanted to offer participants an opportunity to reckon with and ignite transformative antiracist change in Minnesota.”
“We often hear, in Minnesota, that racism isn’t a problem because chattel slavery wasn’t allowed here, but racist acts and policy exist here in MN,” says Wilson-Worsley. “Participants told us about many light bulb moments of the role White supremacy plays in every aspect of their organizations. We know they left the tour truly understanding why they are responsible for creating equitable workplaces here in Minnesota.”
This experiential peer learning tour to Montgomery, Alabama invites participants to uncover a deeper understanding of the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow racism inherent in today’s racial disparities. The tour also sheds light on how the underpinnings of the Civil Rights movement must live on in our relationships, decisions, and investments today to catalyze new cross-sector anti-racist outcomes for the future.
“Participants walk away from these tours understanding that although there is a shortage of opportunity in communities of color, there is no shortage of talent, innovation, or brilliance,” concludes Wilson-Worsley. “Investors and employers who join us have a unique opportunity to grow our region’s economy in measurable ways and to see an ROI by investing directly in Black communities.”