Race and Power in America - Gamaliel Foundation

Race and Power in America

June 8-11, 2015 Detroit

221 North LaSalle Street Suite 1320 Chicago IL 60601 Telephone: (312) 357-2639 www.gamaliel.org gamalielnetwork gamalielnetwork [email protected] Follow the Race and Power Summit on social media: use hashtags: #racepower15 and #gamanetwork

Pastor T. Ray McJunkins, president of Faith Coalition for the Common Good in Springfield, IL, spoke at a rally for fair education funding. Members of Gamaliel of Illinois and other students and leaders from across the state backed him up at the rally in the state capitol in November.

Thank you to our sponsors

Special thanks to the hard working staff of affiliate MOSES for hosting us in Detroit!

Race and Power in America

Table of Contents Opening Letter: Race and Power in America ............................ 1 Discernment Process ............................................................ 2 Discernment Process Continued ............................................ 3 Allies and Partners ................................................................ 4 Agenda ................................................................................. 5-6 Important Dates .................................................................... 7 About Gamaliel ..................................................................... 8 Gamaliel Leaders .................................................................. 9-13 National Staff ....................................................................... 14 Board of Directors ................................................................. 15

All contents copyright Gamaliel 2015 except where noted.

In December, Gamaliel clergy and other leaders joined Metropolitan Congregations United of St. Louis and allies in Ferguson to respond to the verdict exonerating New York City police in the Eric Garner choking case. The action drew national media attention.

RACE AND POWER IN AMERICA Rev. John Welch

Gamaliel Board Chair Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Welcome to Gamaliel’s Race and Power in America Summit. I am delighted that you chose to join us as we embark on the process of rebuilding America through reshaping the narrative in this country around race. Whether you are a panelist, a workshop leader, or summit participant, your involvement these next few days begins the igniting of a historic shift. The Gamaliel network has been successful in winning local actions and national campaigns, fighting for equity and justice. But what we have realized, in retrospect, is that our victories, though significant, have not yielded systemic change because the elephant in the room – structural racism, had not been explicitly and openly challenged. Community disinvestment, neighborhood dissections by highway overpasses, union busting, educational achievement gaps, inequitable funding for public education, unjust school disciplinary policies, mass incarceration, deportations, low-wage jobs, and even community redevelopment pivot on the issue of race and African-Americans and Latinos are and have been the prime targets. Whether it was during slavery and Jim Crow or the Bracero Program, power brokers advanced this country on the backs of people of color through selective disenfranchisement. They continue to do so even today through wage suppression, capitalism and corporate socialism by such methods as personification of corporations and the hijacking of democracy through vehicles such as Citizens United. The Gamaliel net-

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work is poised to lead in discussions and actions against racial discrimination in all forms and begin the creation of “God’s Commonwealth.” This 4-day summit is just the beginning of a long yet tenuous battle for justice. Our goal is the eventual eradication of structural racism and significant reduction of concentrated poverty. I invite you to join or partner with us for as long as it takes to realize this goal. As we move forward we faithfully remember those leaders who labored alongside us over the years but are now cheering us on as witnesses from seats in the heavens. My thanks to all of the summit co-sponsors and others who continue to have faith in our work by financially supporting this organization. I particularly want to thank the United Auto Workers and Bob King, Gamaliel board member and former UAW president, for graciously giving us the opportunity to convene here at the UAW GM Human Resources Conference Center. I’m ready to get busy. I hope you are too! Rev. John C. Welch, M.Div. Chairman

Race and Power in America Summit

In May 2013, Gamaliel leaders gathered in Washington. D.C. as the Senate Judiciary Committee marked up a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Gamaliel Strategic Discernment Process OUR HISTORY Since 1986, our network has trained thousands of ordinary people to engage in building the kind of power that has allowed us to successfully tackle some of the consequences of racially and economically inequitable systems in communities across this country. We celebrate those successes and the twenty-five-plus years that we have been engaged together in this significant work; but as people of faith and good will, we are clear that our organizing is far from complete. For we have been called to something even greater—the work of transforming the very systems that have oppressed our brothers and sisters for too long, more specifically, the work of dismantling structural racism. To do that work we will need additional frameworks and tools. PLANNING FOR THE NEXT TWENTY-FIVE YEARS The Strategic Discernment Process In the fall of 2014, Gamaliel clergy, leaders, organizers, and staff—in consultation with the Grassroots Policy Project (GPP)—began a journey of discernment. We have engaged with concepts like: long-term agenda for transformation, the definition of power—especially transformational power, the process of shifting power, frames for our work, worldview, dominant public narrative, and structural racism. We have also struggled with hard questions: If structural racism is the frame for our work moving forward, then what must we change about our internal culture, network structure, or governance? How will we ensure the sustainability of our organizing work moving forward? Who will be our strategic partners in this endeavor? What is the narrative that will transform the way we talk about ourselves and the world that we envision for the future, as well as, the way we do our organizing?

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We are clear that the goal of our work is creating a world in which all have access to the opportunities that allo them to provide for themselves and their families, engage in meaningful work, participate in their communities, and participate in making the decisions that impact their lives—in essence, a world in which all people flourish. We have determined through this process that our longterm agenda for the transformation of our society is structural: shifting the power held by social, economic, and/or political structures from an elite group of decisionmakers into the hands of the people—those who are impacted by the structures, institutions, and systems. In order to achieve our long-term agenda for transformation, we must begin to “organize our organizing” around four critical structural reform pathways: 1) creating racial equity—race, then, becomes the primary lens for determining the structures that must be transformed or dismantled; 2) building popular control of government; 3) increasing the public sphere; and 4) building popular control of the economy.


Gamaliel Strategic Discernment Process Our issue campaign work at the local, state, and national levels must be sequenced to move us along these pathways in order to achieve deeper structural reform. This does not mean that everyone must be working on the same campaign at once, but it does mean that our work must be coordinated in order to move us along these pathways. The big shift here is that while issues and campaign wins are still important, they are now seen as also moving us forward toward bigger and deeper changes. Shifting power also requires us to shift the dominant public narrative, as the dominant public narrative has the most power to shape what is possible in our society. We have held a series of regional gatherings to gather the input of leaders and organizers across the network in order to develop a Gamaliel transformational narrative that will change the way we talk about ourselves and the world we envision for the future, as well as, the way we do our organizing. This is the first step in moving toward shifting the dominant public narrative.

• Launching Gamaliel’s next 25 years and testing our “working” transformational narrative and long-term agenda with our leaders and organizers.

• Equipping affiliate leaders with concrete tools, strate

gies, and resources that will be used to: 1) communi cate our transformational narrative; 2) organize around our long-term agenda to dismantle structural racism; and 3) begin to apply those to our work, in cluding campaigns.

• Identifying potential strategic partners into our work. The bottom line is this: All of this is new to our network and while we are beginning to understand the implications for our work, the June Race and Power Summit will allow us to both broaden the number of people we are including in the conversation and also to go deeper into the implications for our work.

THE PLACE OF THE JUNE RACE AND POWER SUMMIT IN THE DISCERNMENT PROCESS Gamaliel leaders, organizers, partners, and allies will meet together in Detroit, June 8-11, for the Race and Power in America Summit. The goals of this gathering include: • Preparing Gamaliel leaders and organizers to re-im agine and reshape our network, our campaigns, and our affiliates toward a long-term agenda of shifting power. Race and poverty in the U.S. will be critical lenses through which we re-imagine and reshape our structures, partnerships, and work.


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Angela James, chair of the Gamaliel state directors table and director for Gamaliel of Virginia, last December facilitated a discussion of race and the dominant narrative at our national leadership gathering in St. Louis.

ALLIES AND PARTNERS

Nadia Brigham W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Cris Doby C.S. Mott Foundation

Doak Bloss Michigan Public Health Institute

Rev. Susan Engh Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

Tefere Gebre AFL-CIO

Angela Glover Blackwell PolicyLink

Jack Hayn Internation Union of Painters and Allied Trades

Richard Healey Grassroots Policy Project

Jakada Imani, Center for Spiritual and Social Transformation, Pacific School of Religion

Rev. April Johnson, Executive Director of Reconciliation Ministry, Disciples of Christ

Amy Kenyon Ford Foundation

Mary Lassen Center for Community Change

David Mann Grassroots Policy Project

Luz A. Vega-Marquis Marguerite Casey Foundation

Tameika Mosley Southern Partners Fund

john a. powell Haas Institute

Michelle Reyf Auburn Seminary

Kyle Serrette Center for Popular Democracy

Charlene Sinclair Grassroots Policy Project

Mary Sobecki The Needmor Fund

James Thindwa American Federation of Teachers

Madeline Talbott Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools

Eric Zachary American Federation of Teachers


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Agenda

MOnday - Tuesday All events take place at UAW - GM Human Resources Center, 200 Walker St., Detroit, 48207

1:00

MONDAY, JUNE 8: OUR PATH FORWARD Welcome, Opening Prayer and Worship

1:30

Framing the Summit: Our Mission

2:00

Structural Racism and the Dominant Narrative in our Communities * Case Study: Detroit * Manifestations across the United States

5:00

Transformational Change * Defining long-term solutions to core problems

TUESDAY, JUNE 9: INTEGRATING OUR LONG TERM AGENDA AND TRANSFORMATIONAL NARRATIVE 7:30 Breakfast 9:00 Opening Reflection 9:15 Gamaliel’s Transformational Narrative * How it was developed * What it is (and is not) * Using it – locally and nationally Noon Lunch 1:30 Plenary with Gamaliel Allies 2:30 Break

5:30

Dinner

2:45 Integrating our Long Term Agenda and Transformational Narrative in our Issue Work

6:00

Keynote Address: Angela Glover Blackwell, Policy Link

4:45 Break

6:45

Gamaliel’s Agenda for the Long Term * Pharaoh’s Empire * Our Vision of the future

5:00 Introduction to Sacred Conversations about Race (+ Action) * an organizing tool for Affiliates, congrega tions and communities

8:45

Closing Reflection

5:30 Dinner

9:00

Adjourn for the Day

7:00 Sacred Conversations about Race (+ Action) * engaging one another through this practice * considering how to use this to build power 8:45 Reflection/Prayer 9:00 Adjourn for the Day

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Agenda

wednesday - thursday 5:00 Dinner and Prep for Action 6:00 Load Buses

7:30

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10: DEVELOPING LEADERS FOR THE BATTLES AHEAD Breakfast

9:00

Reflection/Prayer

8:30 Load Buses to return to hotels

9:30

Leadership Training for Experienced Gamaliel Leaders * Constructing your Racial/Political Biography * Structural Racism, Implicit Bias and Building Power Organizations * The Role of Religious Leaders in Combating the Dominant Narrative * Issue Campaigns, Strategies and Tactics using a Structural Racism Analysis * Transformational Leadership: What Will It Take?

7:00 Action — Organized by MOSES, at New Mt. Zion M.B. Church

THURSDAY, JUNE 11: COMMITMENTS AND COMMISSIONING 7:30 Breakfast 9:00 Reflection 9:15 Mapping the Road from Here * Working in leadership groups * Reflecting on the week * Planning next steps * Making individual and collective commit ments 11:00 Break

10:30 Break

11:15 Caucus by State through lunch

10:45 Leadership Training sessions (see above)

Noon Lunch

Noon Lunch

1:00 Public declaration of commitments

1:30

Leadership Training sessions (see above)

3:00

Break

1:30 Closing * Evaluation * Worship and Commissioning

3:30

Leadership Training Sessions (see above)

2:30 Summit Concludes


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Going Forward

Important Dates Organizers and Organizers of Color retreats, July 6-9 Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center, Chicago Details and registration TBD For the professional network staff, Gamaliel holds several professional organizer retreats, including its Organizers of Color table. National Leadership Training 2 & Training of Trainers, July 19-25 University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL Register here: http://bit.ly/NLT2-2015 NLT 3, Nov. 8-14 Santa Rosa, CA Details and Registration TBD This 7-day residential training presents the concepts and tools an effective leader needs. It affords a person the opportunity to reflect on his/her present and future potential roles in the public arena. The method is Socratic. The style is agitational. Ntosake women’s leadership retreat, Oct. 1-3 Mission San Luis Rey, San Diego Details and registration TBD The word comes from South Africa and means “She who walks with lions and carries her own things.” This is a women’s leadership training program conducted by and for women. It is designed to present ideas and concepts for becoming effective and powerful leaders. It also provides a support network for women. The program is designed to help women overcome the internal and external obstacles faced on the journey to becoming powerful and effective leaders. National Leadership Retreat, Dec. 1-3 Details and registration TBD Leaders from across our organization including affiliate presidents and key leaders, leadership from our national tables and campaigns, and key staff gather once a year or as needed. In addition, periodically Gamaliel calls an International Leadership Assembly, or ILA, attended by leaders and staff from across the network including our allied organizations in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Get more details at http://www.gamaliel.org/EventsTraining.aspx

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ABOUT GAMALIEL Gamaliel was started in 1986 to train community and faith leaders to build political power and create organizations that unite people diverse and races. Our diverse members their faith and values to the pursuit of equal opportuGamaliel wasofstarted in faiths 1986 to train community and faith leadersapply to build political nity for all, abundance, and moreofprosperous communities. power andshared create organizations thatstronger, unite people diverse faiths and races. Our

Affiliates

mission is to empower ordinary people to effectively participate in the political, environmental, social and economic decisions affecting their lives. Gamaliel’s California diverse members apply their faith and values to the pursuit of equal opportunity New York State Office: Gamaliel California for all, shared abundance, and stronger, more prosperous communities. regional office: Gamaliel of Western New York Sonoma County: North Bay Organizing Project Buffalo: VOICE Alameda County: Genesis Niagara Falls: NOAH, Niagara Organizing Alliance for Sacramento: Capitol Region Organizing Project Hope San Diego: Justice Overcoming We build strong localBoundaries organizations Syracuse: ACTS – Syracuse, Alliance of Communities State Contract: The Arc of California With 43 affiliates and 7 state offices in 16 states, Gamaliel works to build strong Transforming Syracuse metropolitan and statewide organizations. National staff provides consulting, Rochester: Rochester ACTS Georgia Riverhead: LION, of Long Island Organizing Network Atlanta: ABLE, Leadership for Empowerment training andAtlantans support Building to leaders and staff in local organizations. A survey organizers and lead staff across the network at year’s end found that Gamaliel’s Ohio Illinois national staff is majority women. People of color are about 40 percent of orgaYoungstown: ACTION, Alliance for Congregational Chicago: Gamaliel of Metro Chicago nizers, lead organizers, and directors across the network (56% of organizers Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods Pilsen Neighbors Community Council across network are women; 26% are women of color). SSAC, South Suburban Action Conference Pennsylvania Springfield: Faith Coalition for the Common Good Pittsburgh: PIIN, Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact E. St. Louis: UCM, United Congregations Metro East Network We develop powerful leaders through training Erie: PIIN-Northwest Indiana Gamaliel three national South Bend:organizes Indiana Organizing Project weeklong trainings per year, an advanced Tennessee leadership/strategic campaigns training, Ntosake training for women, African Chattanooga: Tennessee Organization Iowa American Leadership Commission, National Clergy Caucus, and a national TOFFEE, leadFor Fair Equity and Empowerment Davenport: QCI, Quad Cities Interfaith ership gathering in Washington, D.C. These events reach moreNashville: than 500 in total NOAH, Nashville Organized for Action and in a typical year. A study last year found that even up to three years following Hope Kansas & Missouri national weeklong training, past participants Kansas City: MORE2, Metro Organization for Racial could identify significant ways in Find us online: and Economic Equity has (in both states)both their perception of howVirginia which the training changed they build power gamalielnetwork Hampton: Empower St. Louis, MCU, Congregations and theMo: skills thatMetropolitan they use. 79% of participants noted that they still used a skill Hampton Roads Petersburg: Nehemiah United gained at training at least once a week. gamalielnetwork

Wisconsin gamaliel.org statewide: WISDOM Eau Claire: JONAH, Joining transportationequity.org Our Neighbors, Advancing Hope nonpartisan civic engagement campaigns Green Bay: JOSHUA, Justice Organization Sharing Michigan Hope and United for Action Our national office: State Office:helped Gamaliel of Michigan Gamaliel pioneer advocacy and organizing on regional equity 15 years Kenosha:This CUSH, Congregations United to Serve Battle JONAH, Joint-Religious Organizing ago Creek: working with partners like john powell and the Ford Foundation. work Gamaliel Humanity Network for Action & Hope continues to be foundational to our policy and issue organizing. Recognizing 221Mobilizing, N. LaSalleand Street, suite 1320 La Crosse: AMOS, Advocating, Detroit: MOSES, Metropolitan Organizing Strategy for Enabling infrastructure projects’ job-creation potential, and building Organizing on local affiliates in Solidarity Strength Chicago, IL 60601 worker rights’ advocacy, Gamaliel hasCoalition focused its campaign Madison: and jobsMOSES work on We-ROC, Washtenaw Regional Organizing 312-357-2639 Milwaukee: MICAH, Kalamazoo: Strategy for Advocacy & mega-projects. increasingISAAC, accessInterfaith to jobs and job training on these This is a major Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope Action Community focusinofthecurrent work along with other issue campaigns including education Neenah: ESTHER, Equality, Solidarity, Truth, Hope, Lansing: ACTION of Greater Lansing transparency and accountability and immigration reform. Empowerment, Reform Saginaw: The Ezekiel Project Racine: RIC, Racine Interfaith Coalition Waukesha: SOPHIA, Stewards Of Prophetic, Hopeful, New Hampshire Intentional, Action ABLE NH, Advocates Building Lasting Equality Wausau: NAOMI Maryland Prince George’s County: PRISCM, Partnership for Renewal In Southern andinfluential Central Maryland We run advocacy &

**Partners on immigration: Hawaii Coalition for Immigration Reform, Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, Minnesota


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National Network Legend: Presidents in bold font, staff in plain type

leaders California CA

Kathryn Gilje

Ken Hermann

CA

Leticia Romero

CA

Roy Grimes

Christina Gonzales

Georgia GA

CA

Karym Sanchez

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Mary Lim-Lampe

Michelle Pariset

Susan Shaw


Rev. Mark Lomax

Davin Cardenas

Illinois IL

Deacon Lavonn Traylor

leaders Illinois

Rev. Charles K. Burton

Rev. David Bigsby

T. Ray McJunkins

Salvador Cerna

Ana Padilla

Fernando Rayas

Indiana

Jessica Wernli

Juan F. Soto

Iowa

Larry Gallagher

Maria Castañeda

Kansas

Shelly Heideman

Rev. Wendy Bruner

Maryland

IA

Leslie Kilgannon

Dave Elliot

Michigan

Sandra Holderman Not shown, Rev. Rodney Williams

Lora McDonald

Ethel Shepard-Powell

MI

Rev. Matt Weiler

Joyce Seals

Rev. Donald Bryant

Rev. Ronald P. Davis Sr.

MI

Sheri Harris


Willie Haynes

Sr. Cheryl Liske

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leaders Michigan

MI

Aida Cuadrado

Andy Greenia

Denise Medina

Dr. Charlae Davis

Eufayba Toure

Jamie Forbes

Missouri MI

MI

MI

Johnnie Turnage

Kandia Milton

Mary Hanna

MO

Matt Friedrichs

Ponsella Hardaway

Jim Sahaida

New Hamphshire

NH

Brittini Gray

Chris Potter

Rev. David Gerth

Rev. Susan Sneed

Will Currie

Linda Quintanilla

Pastor James Giles

Rev. Andy C. Lewter

Rev. JoAnne Scott

New York NY

Dr. Marvin Mich

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NY

Lynn Davis

Melvin Baker


LEADERS New York NY

Brian Zralek

Bruce McKay

Jon Greenbaum

Ohio NY

Simangaliso Smith

Mark Cass

Michael Nicolás Okińczyc

Shaketa Redden

Pennsylvania OH

Dr. M. Rosie Taylor

PA

Rosetta Carter

Elder Tony Ratcliff

Rev. Richard L. Freeman, Sr

Catherine Balsamo

Virginia

Tennessee

VA

Evans Moore, Jr.

Lois Campbell

Sue Thorn

Rev. Ed Thompson

Mike Hodge

Rev. Addie N. Peterson

Wisconsin VA

Angela K. James

Daniel Todd

Betty Groenewold

Fr. Joe Mattern


WI

WI

Greg Petro

Michael Remson

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LEADERS Wisconsin WI

WI

Rev. Willie Brisco

WI

13

Sandy Milligan

WI

Ron Alexander

Ruth Kolpack

WI

WI

Wesley White

Jim Soletski

WI

WI

Ann Lacy

WI

Dawn Lingo

John Stedman

Sr. Barb Pfarr

Stephanie Gyldenvand

Laura Syring

Bernie Gonzalez

Michael J. Wollman

Nancy Slattery

Catoya Roberts

David Liners

WI

WI

Rachel Westenberg


WI

Rev. Michael Mueller

Ron Corn

National Staff

Ana Garcia-Ashley Executive Director

Amelia Sisk Administrative Assistant

Angela James Chair, State Directors

Sr. Cheryl Liske ILA Director

Rev, Cynthia Jarrold National Policy Coordinator

Gordon Mayer Director, Development and Communications

Jay Schmitt Chief Operating Officer

John Norton Director of Training

Juan Soto CRI Director

Laura Barrett TEN/National Campaigns Director

Mario Gonzalez I.T. Consultant

Regina Lewis Financial Manager


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Board

Gamaliel Board of Directors Chairman Rev. John Welch Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Vice Chairman Ms. Consuelo (Connie) Miller Attorney at Law, Chicago Treasurer Dr. Steven Jay Blutza SJB Advertising/Marketing, Chicago Secretary Mr. Ed Grossman Chicago Legal Clinic Fr. Rudy Juarez St. Mary’s Church of Iowa City Fr. Larry W. Dorsch St. Paul Catholic Church, Weirton, WV Mr. Harvey Lyon HTL, Inc., Beverly Shores, IN Mr. Denis Detzel Eastlake Consulting, Chicago Rev. David Bigsby The Upper Room Ministries, Glenwood, IL Ms. Victoria Jimenez-Morales Genesis, Oakland, CA Ms. Katherine McFate Center for Effective Government, Washington, DC Mr. Bob King United Auto Workers (ret.), Detroit

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