To state Sen. Robert Brown, D-Macon, racial progress will require elected officials to openly acknowledge the existence of institutional racism, and community organization to demand changed public policies.
“We are not being honest with one another,” he told a crowd Thursday night.
To Bibb County Commissioner Joe Allen, the same progress will require intensive communication among all levels of public officials and an end to anonymity for racist commenters on local media sites, he told the same crowd.
They addressed a community forum on race and politics, held at Macon City Hall, which drew about 60 people, including a number of city officials and community leaders. It was hosted by Unity-N-Community and sponsored by NewTown Macon, Clear Channel Macon and Cricket Communications.
The forum came in the wake of a public dispute between Brown and state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon.
Last month, Brown, talking about a number of white Democrats who switched to the Republican Party after the fall elections, said they should keep their “white sheets” for a “midnight meeting.” Peake said Brown was obviously alluding to the Ku Klux Klan and asked Brown to apologize for the insinuation that Republicans are racist.
Brown refused and held a news conference in Macon City Council chambers, saying little but handing out a statement that said his comment referred to Republican sex scandals. As Brown left quickly to avoid questions, one of his followers physically attacked a Telegraph photographer who was trying to photograph the senator.
Unity-N-Community chairman Al Tillman and Kendall Herold, WGXA-TV anchor, co-hosted the forum.
Allen and Brown took questions from several panelists, with Allen filling in for Peake, who was tied up in Atlanta; Peake was reportedly on his way, but with 45 minutes left in the two-hour forum, he hadn’t arrived.
Retired college professor Catherine Meeks led off by asking Allen and Brown what the most basic hindrance was to community unity.
“We basically don’t get together like we should,” Allen said. “A lot of people don’t know who their next door neighbors are.”
Adding a new dimension to the unity debate, former Mercer University President Kirby Godsey asked about governmental consolidation. Neither Allen nor Brown objected, though Brown said institutional racism and the fear that black officials would lose power were possible hindrances.
Mercer professor Mary Wilder asked where a new wave of inspirational leadership would come from on civil rights.
“What happens now? Where is the action?” she said. “I’m sick of talking about it. I want to do something.”
“The one charismatic leader is not what is needed,” Brown replied. “We’re going to have to wait for Jesus on that one.”
For his part, Allen pointed to Bibb County Commission Chairman Sam Hart as one example.
Brown and Allen also went through questions on legislative redistricting, overheated rhetoric, allocation of police resources and youth involvement, with the debate sometimes getting sharp but never out of hand.
To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489.
