Conference Participation

The Use and Effect of Community-Based Structures on Inequality

Paper:  Rewind: Lessons from Fifty Years of Activism

Abstract: From the mid-1960s well into the 1970s, Minneapolis experienced some of the street violence sparked by anger over racial injustice that swept much of the nation, as well as organized, nonviolent protests involving both concerned citizens and University of Minnesota students. Our presentation will relate the story of how street violence in 1966-67 in north Minneapolis became the catalyst that brought together a partnership unique to Minnesota – a partnership between elected officials, grassroots neighborhood leadership, and high-level representatives of many of the State’s leading corporations, resulting in the creation of the Urban Coalition. There is some treasured ancestral wisdom that says, sometimes, when there is no road to the place we want to go, “We have to make the road by walking.” For nearly twenty years, the Urban Coalition became a valued, trusted community institution which did just that: building what seemed to many an unlikely partnership between the top leaders from 14 of Minneapolis‘ major corporations, working in concert with groups representing poor people and people of color to solve proles that exist at the nexus of race and poverty. We will review several initiatives of the Urban Coalition and discuss their impact on the quality of life for Minneapolis residents. We will also discuss how, in response to the devastating Attica Prison rebellion in New York, the Governor of Minnesota created the nation’s first Prison Ombudsman by executive order. Co-presenter T. Williams was the first person appointed to this post.

Booking Signing

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