BEYOND I HAVE A DREAM
People who cannot attend, start the discussion here. Tell us your favorite quote from Martin King (besides “I have a dream”) so your neighbors can discuss it Wednesday the 11th., 6:30 at the Brooks Library in Brattleboro
Four special guests will make remarks at the beginning of the event. Most of the allotted time, from 6:30 to 8:30, and maybe later, will be devoted to free discussion about the Martin Luther King who has never been celebrated in popular culture. Who gradually became influenced by Malcohm X.
BCS is planning this event to be a public discussion with the descriptive title “Beyond I Have A Dream” and with short presentations by Ethan Nasreddin-Longo, Reverend Arnold Thomas, Rv. Lise Sparrow, and Mary Gannon, honoring King and Black History Month and featuring Q&A and public discussion more than presentations. The purpose will be to raise awareness of King’s radical evolution and of other militant anti-racist thought.
A commentary by Rev. Thomas’ published in Jun 1, 2020, was the inspiration for this event. He lamented the outcry about the killing of George Floyd.
“The increasing numbers of black and brown people across the nation and in Vermont have also increased in their intolerance of noisy-gong-and-clashing-cymbal-like rhetoric of whites who momentarily raise their voices against what they see as a momentary crisis and then resume their lives supporting and sustaining the systems of their own privilege.”
Mary Gannon is a training consultant with the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, a prominent activist around Brattleboro, and honored for Lifetime Achievement by the Windham County NAACP.
Lise Sparrow and Ms. Gannon founded the the Community Equity Foundation. As a leader of Vermont Interfaith Action pastor she made the Guilford Church a well known resource for social justice events and organizing. She received special commendation for her work by the Vermont Legislature.
Professor Longo has served as director of the Vermont Legislative Panel on Racial Disparities in Montpelier and as counsel to the Vermont State Police on officer training. Locally he has been a visiting professor at Marlboro College. In 2022 he gave a public introductory lesson on critical race theory for BCS.
The Reverend Arnold Thomas
The reverend’s awards in the ministry and civil rights advocacy are really too many to mention. He is:
> Cofounder, Vermont Social Equity Caucus of the State House and Senate
> President & Founder, Northern Berkshire Human Rights & Relations Task Force
> Board Member, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance
> Board Member, Vermont ACLU
and these are only four positions he holds in community leadership in social justice only around Vermont. His scholarship and leadership positions outside Vermont and in the ministry are too many to mention here.
Brattleboro.CommonSense@gmail.com
