Nonprofit
Mission Award for
Anti-Racism
Initiative
Criteria
This
award recognizes creative applications and nontraditional
approaches to solving community challenges. Nominated
organizations should:
- Bring
creative solutions to community challenges;
- Employ
a variety of strategies in developing these solutions;
and
- Collaborate
with other nonprofit organizations, businesses and
governmental agencies in their efforts.
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Finalists
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Staff
and volunteers of MCN members only are eligible. You
will need your MCN member ID number when you vote.
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Clayton
Jackson McGhie Memorial
On June
15, 1920, three African American laborers from a traveling
circus, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, were
hanged by a mob of thousands after being falsely accused
of raping a white woman in Duluth, Minnesota. For nearly
80 years these men were forgotten, until a group of citizens
decided to restore them to collective conscious so that
their community of Duluth might recognize their complicity
in these murders, while also beginning the process of healing
and reconciliation. Their first task was to build the Clayton
Jackson McGhie Memorial, which was unveiled in 2003, at
the site of the tragedy and is the only American monument
of its size dedicated to victims of lynching.
This building committee then
formed a nonprofit, the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial,
Inc. (CJMM, Inc.), to continue to “bring the truth
to light” by raising awareness of racism as a historic,
institutional and systemic phenomenon, but also continuing
to build bridges and restore the community in the Twin Ports
area. CJMM Inc. uses a number of outlets including public
presentations, media statements and educational DVDs that
they produce, to educate the community on systemic racism
and white privilege. They also hold an annual Day of Remembrance
at the Memorial and award a $1,000 scholarship to an area
student who is committed to their mission.
CJMM, Inc. seeks racial justice
via education, reconciliation and healing, and developing
partnerships. They have three main routes of influence in
Minnesota. First, the Memorial is a literal symbol ofatonement
and reconciliation. Every year, people gather on the Day
of Remembrance to consider the lessons taught by the memorial
and consider what a fairer society would look like. Second,
CJMM, Inc. is a credible voice on diversity, tolerance and
how to dismantle racism and they are open to conversations
on these topics. Board members of CJMM, Inc. lead trainings
and discussions based around their DVDs and the history
of the lynching. They also publicly advocate anti-racist
positions, including the sale of tax-forfeited county land
in tribal reservation boundaries back to the tribes. Third,
CJMM, Inc. is committed to supporting youth as they seek
higher education and an understanding of how racism has
affected their own lives.
As a result of the CJMM, Inc.
new paths to reconciliation have been opened, creating a
healthier community. In 2008, Warren Read, direct descendent
of a lynch mob organizer, attended the Day of Remembrance
with Elmer Jackson’s cousin, Virginia Huston. CJMM,
Inc. hopes to teach about racism’s impact through
their Memorial, the Day of Remembrance and other programs.
Clayton
Jackson McGhie Memorial Web site: www.claytonjacksonmcghie.org
Pangea World Theater
Pangea World Theater presents
international, multi-disciplinary theater to illuminate
the human condition, celebrate cultural differences and
promote human rights. They seek to build relationships
between artistic and human rights organizations to create
a powerful collective foundation for work that merges
alternative and marginalized voices into the mainstream.
Their programming reaches adults and children from a diverse
audience, including minorities and immigrants. Pangea
has developed partnerships with various organizations
across the state to be able to sponsor productions, speaker
series and presentations of international artists. They
have gained the support of people involved with various
social service, ethnic, economic and political organizations,
and have been able to build bridges between communities,
enabling personal interchange of ideas and culture.
The direction of Pangea World
Theater comes out of relevant shifts in social, cultural
and political topics of the communities where its audience
lives and works. They seek to bring artists together to
confront stereotypes, challenge audiences with diverse perspectives
and aesthetics, and to push the boundaries of accepted forms
of art. In every production, the actors come from a variety
of ethnic groups and are forced to cross boundaries and
confront questions of race, ethnicity and cultural difference.
Also, approximately 30 percent of the audience served is
low-income, which the theater supports by providing discounted
and free tickets and conducting programming in areas frequented
by specific immigrant and minority communities.
Pangea seeks to inject the
local theater scene with new and provocative programming
through their four core series. First, Voices of Exile showcases
work from refugee and immigrant communities. Second, Indigenous
Voices highlights the work of local, national and international
artists during Thanksgiving week as they examine issues
of identity, rights, struggles and experiences. Third, Alternate
Visions offers playwrights of color the opportunity to spend
an extended amount of time writing and developing new plays,
with the resources and support of Pangea. Last, Bridges
brings together artists of color and immigrant artists from
the Midwest to examine new ways of collaboration and cultural
expression across the divide of race and ethnicity. Pangea
World Theater is the only theater in the Twin Cities that
provides a stage for artists from a variety of immigrant
and minority communities to come together through art, working
to understand different cultures, create art from many different
cultures for the broader community and to foster the creation
of theater that draws on cultural traditions while at the
same time, advancing theater. Pangea works to build bridges
of understanding through the arts.
Pangea
World Theater Web site: www.pangeaworldtheater.org
PFund Foundation
PFund
Foundation’s Racial Equity Initiative builds the organizational
capacity of independent organizations that serve lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities of color
through grant making and technical assistance and helps
to cultivate LGBT leaders of color. PFund is committed to
supporting the LGBT community by providing grants and scholarships,
developing leaders and inspiring others to give to these
organizations.
PFund recognizes that racial
inequalities exist in many areas, including health and wellness,
school readiness, economic success and civic participation.
They believe this is also true in LGBT communities where
injustice and racism exist in what many see as a white movement.
Thus, through the Racial Equity Initiative, PFund seeks
to eliminate racism internally and externally.
This initiative began as PFund
had conversations with people in the community and recognized
a need. Currently, there is an advisory board of LGBT people
of color who advise on decisions made by the initiative.
PFund hopes that as they help to build the capacity of LGBT
people of color organizations, their visibility and strength
as part of the LGBT movement will increase. Also, by investing
in community leaders, they ensure that LGBT people of color
voices are present and active in influencing every level
of our communities. The Racial Equity Initiative seeks to
be the first established pipeline for LGBT people of color
funding and leadership development.
During the fall and winter
2007-2008, PFund worked with Marnita’s Table to bring
together leaders from the LGBT and allied communities of
color. During these three meetings, topics included historical
oppression of people of color in the LGBT movement, leadership
in the LGBT communities of color, funding access for projects
and programs serving LGBT communities of color, and developing
opportunities for leaders in LGBT communities of color to
enhance their leadership skills. Out of these discussions,
the Racial Equity Initiative was born and PFund began working
with Family & Children’s Service and Pillsbury
United Communities to develop programs and implement trainings.
While the Racial Equity Initiative
is committed to providing funding and developing leaders
in the LGBT communities of color, many argue that one of
the greatest successes of the program is that it provides
an opportunity for LGBT people of color to come together
and build community. By gathering like this, thee communities
can build power through shared learning. Their support also
helped to form Color CoordiNATION, a multi-cultural LGBT
people of color organization, and they also support Pride
events and assist leaders in attending trainings and conferences.
PFund
Foundation Web site: www.pfundonline.org
Staff
and volunteers of MCN members only are eligible. You will
need your MCN member ID number when you vote.
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