At virtual MLK event, activists say Lawrence still needs work on social justice issues

photo by: Screenshot, Justice Matters

Edith Guffey, Lawrence resident and conference minister for the United Church of Christ Kansas-Oklahoma Conference, gave the keynote address at Justice Matters' virtual Martin Luther King Jr. event on Jan. 18.

Lawrence isn’t an island, Edith Guffey repeated during her keynote address at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event on Monday.

There is this idea that the city is special, she said — a “progressive blue dot” — and that it is somehow different from other parts of the state in how it handles social justice issues. But that’s not the case, said Guffey, who is a Lawrence resident and a conference minister for the United Church of Christ Kansas-Oklahoma Conference.

“Friends, we have problems here in Lawrence, and we have to stop thinking that Lawrence is different,” Guffey said. “‘Yes,’ you say, ‘but aren’t we better?’ Well, I guess if it’s better to be on a ship with only one hole than it is to be on a ship with three holes, I guess we’re better. But Dr. King reminds us that a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Guffey was the keynote speaker during a virtual event put on by local activist group Justice Matters. Around 200 people attended the event, which included an “injustice tour” of Lawrence that highlighted three areas the group identified as problems: homelessness, mass incarceration and racial disparities in discipline within the Lawrence school district.

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As the Journal-World reported, Justice Matters co-president Deacon Godsey said the activist group hosted a series of listening sessions in the fall of 2020 where hundreds of community members gathered in Zoom meetings to identify social justice issues in the Lawrence community. Justice Matters’ other co-president, Justin Jenkins, said at the beginning of Monday’s event that Martin Luther King Jr. Day was the perfect opportunity to discuss injustices.

“That’s what’s so great about this holiday, is that when we celebrate his life and his legacy, it’s a catalyst to think about the things that we can do in our own lives, in our own city, in our own community, to honor his example,” said Jenkins, who is a pastor at Velocity Church.

During the event, local speakers streamed in live on location from different areas in Lawrence where they believe injustices occur. Following the live broadcasts, Justice Matters played recorded interviews with national experts addressing the problems at hand.

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Stephen Barbee and Kirsten Kuhn, co-chairs of the jail alternatives committee for Justice Matters, called in from outside the Douglas County Jail, where they discussed the incarceration of nonviolent offenders and racial disparities in the criminal justice system and called county jails a front door to mass incarceration in the U.S. Though Black people make up less than 5% of the Lawrence population, as of Friday, 22% of people in the Douglas County Jail were Black, according to jail records.

Attendees then heard from Jasmine Heiss, a project director for the Vera Institute of Justice whose “In Our Backyards” initiative examines incarceration rates in small cities and rural areas. She said the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that it is possible to depopulate jails, noting that there was an estimated 25% national decline in the number of people behind bars during the pandemic.

“It simply involves communities, prosecutors, judges and probation officers — the entire justice system — making choices not to criminalize the poor, not to criminalize the sick and to invest on the front end in communities and resources,” she said.

To highlight the issue of homelessness in the community, John Krehbiel called into the event from outside the Days Inn hotel, which is one of the locations that has been serving as a temporary shelter for homeless people during the winter. Krehbiel, who is the volunteer coordinator for the winter shelter, called the city’s current shelter programs “another Band-Aid on what is obviously a gaping wound in our community.”

Julia Orlando, director of the Bergen County Housing, Health and Human Services Center in Hackensack, N.J., then appeared on screen to discuss how her community “reached functional zero for chronic homelessness and veteran homelessness.” Orlando said communities must switch from a mindset of managing homelessness to ending it. She called for political leaders who are committed to eliminating homelessness and holding one another accountable, as well as aligning resources, reducing barriers to accessing shelter and creating a list of everyone who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Local high schoolers Donnavan Dillon and Nora Gerami called in from in front of the school district’s offices to discuss school discipline. Dillon, who attends Lawrence High School, said students of color are often underrepresented in advanced placement classes, honors classes and art programs and overrepresented in disciplinary infractions. He said he is often the only Black student in his advanced placement and art classes.

Kristin Powell, director of training for the Direct Action and Research Training Center in Miami, said reducing suspensions and implementing restorative justice practices is key to improving racial disparities in schools. Restorative practices promote relationship building and conflict resolution through methods such as bringing victims, offenders and supporters together to address wrongdoings. Powell said it is especially important to have a strong restorative justice training program in place and to track suspension rates.

Guffey, the keynote speaker for the event, pointed to all these examples when she reminded attendees that the Lawrence community has more work to do. Guffey said she has had more than one sleepless night following the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. But what happened that day, Guffey said, “has always been there.”

“It’s about power and white supremacy that has been stoked and legitimized by those in power,” she said. “It’s the continuing struggle for the soul of this nation.”

Guffey said people often enjoy the uplifting parts of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but that she pulled inspiration for her address from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” noting that the text “must be heard with a renewed sense of urgency.” Guffey called on attendees to be bold, loud and “to act with a greater sense of urgency for justice, especially racial justice, in this community.”

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