The Racial Justice Working Group led a meeting for learning in October to take a look at the past, present, and future of racial justice efforts within the meeting.

In the past three years, the bulk of the working group's efforts has focused on hosting movie nights (a total of 27). However, the group has also organized a trip to Montgomery, two theatre nights, a cinema night, a book club, a letter writing campaign, a vigil, participation in two marches and a webinar, and a handful of presentations to business meeting. Active working group members expressed an eagerness to move beyond education activities to action. (See the attached document for a retrospective of education activities since 2018.)

As a group, Friends read the meeting's minute on racial justice and reflected on the meeting's present. Friends spoke of how they felt the two quotes included in the minute were working within their lives. Friends agreed that the vigil had been a high point for the meeting in that so many Friends participated and the Friends' presence on the street corner seemed to be a whole-meeting action. 

This yearning for whole-meeting action was a focus of several Friends' sharing about what a future can look like. Several Friends also expressed an interest in coming together with other faith communities to work on projects.

Susan, the convener of the working group, presented at the December business meeting regarding the meeting for learning. One Friend asked for hyperlinks to available films from the series. Below is a partial list:

The Bail Trap: American Ransom:

https://www.bravenewfilms.org/thebailtrap

Dawnland:

https://www.pbs.org/video/dawnland-t0dsij/

At the River I Stand:

https://www.kanopy.com/product/river-i-stand (also available for check-out from the MFM library)

Immigrant Prisons:

https://www.bravenewfilms.org/imseries

Uplift the Vote: Fayette County, Tennessee, Civil Rights Movement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh515oDkYeQ

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZPl4CFEUc

Suppressed 2020: The Fight to Vote:

https://www.bravenewfilms.org/suppressed

King 5: Facing Race:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/facing-race/facing-race-full-episodes/281-7bc27164-52ec-402a-95ce-fb35259b0f68

Just Mercy (available from many outlets for rental):

https://www.justmercyfilm.com/  

Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXZFdGhhMnk

Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre: YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater

Walk Together Children – 150 Anniversary of the Fisk Jubilee Singers ($20 Vimeo rental):

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/walktogetherchildren

Additional materials about movie nights can be found on the web site using the tag “Racial Justice”:

https://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/19002/news?tag=Racial%20Justice