The city of St. Joseph is working with Spectrum Health Lakeland and Lake Michigan College to explore how laws, policies and practices over the past several hundred years have laid the foundation for racial inequities now. Mayor Mike Garey says there will be three forums on Zoom in April, May, and June with different topics. As to what led to it, he says that was last May with the Georgia jogger shooting, a woman in Central Park, and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Then the community march through Saint Joe down into Benton Harbor that was so (well) attended that the city decided that we needed to take a look at our own community first,” Garey tells WSJM’s Jim Gifford.
The series will be moderated by ABC 57 news anchor Brian Coneybeare and will start at 7 p.m. The first forum will be April 13 and cover “Slavery to the Civil War, 1600s to 1860s.” After that will be May 11 and cover “Emancipation Proclamation through Post Reconstruction, 1863-1900s.” The last will be June 15 and be “The Struggle for Civil Rights and Beyond, 1900s to present.” You can register on Spectrum Health Lakeland’s website and Lake Michigan College’s website.
