Do minorities face inequalities in housing, education, criminal justice and health care?

While it’s a widely held belief that minorities face discrimination in all these areas, a September conference in Huntsville, which will include Limestone County representatives, seeks to find remedies.

“Better Together: A Conference on Race,” will be held Sept. 10 and 11 at the Redstone Federal Training Center, according to Joyce Maples of the University of Alabama in Huntsville marketing office.

UAH is a sponsor, as well as Calhoun Community College, Oakwood College, Alabama A&M; University and the Interfaith Mission Service. Other sponsors include The Huntsville Times, The Racial Harmony Coalition, Kudzu Productions, MagnaVista Group, city of Huntsville and Phoenix.

“This has been two years in the making,” said Maples. “This is the real brainchild of Kenny Anderson, a sociology instructor at Calhoun College and is in response to a survey sent out two years ago.”

Anderson could not be contacted at his Calhoun office Friday.

Maples said the Redstone Federal Training Center has seating for 200, so if registration exceeds that, the conference will be moved to the UAH University Center, which seats 525.



Hate groups increasing



In the broader aspect of the country’s racial climate, organizers say the conference is spurred by a Southern Poverty Law Center report that identified 888 organized hate groups in the United States, which is a 48-percent increase since 2000. The increase in hate groups includes white supremacists, neo-Nazis, anti-immigrant extremists and anti-gay groups, among others.

Closer to home, the overflow crowd protesting a public housing project in South Huntsville in April brought to the surface prevailing racial fears.

“The Racial Harmony Committee believes that accurate information about the reality of racial disparities and common values are desperately needed to inform these discussions,” states the Better Together Conference Web site.



Noted speakers



The conference, chaired by Calhoun’s Anderson, brings together panels of distinguished authors and speakers, among which are:

• Dr. Keith O. Lawrence, of the Aspen Institute, Roundtable on Community Change. The author of numerous publications and papers, for the past two years, Lawrence has led the project, “Rethinking Crime and Punishment for the 21st Century,” a study of mass incarceration and justice inequities in the U.S.

• The Rev. Joseph B. Ingle, a United Church of Christ minister, the author of “Last Rights: 13 Fatal Encounters with the State’s Justice,” and a two-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, will lead the discussion, “Slavery by Another Name” about the re-enslavement of blacks from the Civil War to the present as perpetuated by the criminal justice system.

• Dr. Tonea Stewart, actor and director of the Alabama State University Theatre Department will lead a discussion after the showing of the film “Constellation,” which was shot in Huntsville in 2004 which concerns race relations.

• Also speaking will be Hank Klibanoff, winner of a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation,” co-written with Gene Roberts. A former managing editor for the Atlanta Constitution and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Klibanoff is currently doing investigative reporting of unsolved civil rights “cold cases” being reopened by the FBI.



Local input



There will be local representatives of area churches, social services, education, and child advocates.

One of the local speakers will be Mitzi Johnson, pre-release program director, for Limestone Correctional Facility.

“As the pre-release director, Mitzi tries to find places to live for inmates that will soon leave the system,” said Maples. “Once released, former inmates are sent to half-way houses in South Alabama. Mitzi said for them to be successfully reestablished in the free world they would be helped by being released closer to their families, who can offer support.”

Deadline for registration is Aug. 30. To register, visit: bettertogetherconference.net.

The two-day conference includes lunches and a Friday evening reception with hors d’oeuvres and entertainment by Microwave Dave and the Nukes.