Community Stories

This page features clips from WCRP meetings, events, interviews, and other frank discussions between community members on matters of race.

 

09/19/2024 History of the Weakley County Training School

This presentation offers a deep dive into the history of Weakley County Training School and its notable alumni. It highlights the plans for revitalizing the school’s property and provides information on how you can support this important community effort.

 

08/14/2021 General Meeting Recording
Civil War/Confederate Monuments, Dr. David Coffey

Dr. Coffey joined us to reprise his talk from the 2021 Civil Rights Conference on the Civil War and America’s love/hate relationship with the Confederate Flag and Confederate Monuments. His talk comes in the context of the recent removal of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s status from the Tennessee Statehouse.

 

06/19/2021 Juneteenth Event
Location: Weakley County Courthouse in Dresden, TN

The event starts at timestamp 03:26 minutes. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States and America’s newest Federal Holiday.  

05/15/2021 General Meeting:
Guest Speaker UT Martin librarian, Dr. Conrad Pegues

Dr. Conrad Pegues shared his personal family history and the hard work of encouraging families, friends, and ourselves to challenge the past. 

After Conrad’s talk we discussed the following questions: 

  1. How do we work with ourselves, families, and friends to challenge our past? 
  2. The church canonized Joan of Arc in 1920, years after burning her at the stake in 1491. It was too late for Joan. How do we rectify the sins of the past which are all too often structured into the present system? Is it enough to simply acknowledge the wrong, give pardon, say, I’m sorry? 
  3. How do you heal a piecemeal personal and collective memory when parts of it are gone, missing or hurtful?

**Guest Speaker UT Martin librarian, Dr. Conrad Pegues: **Dr. Conrad Pegues shared his personal family history and the hard work of encouraging families, friends, and ourselves to challenge the past. **After Conrad's talk we discussed the following questions: **1. How do we work with ourselves, families, and friends to challenge our past? 1. The church canonized Joan of Arc in 1920, years after burning her at the stake in 1491. It was too late for Joan. How do we rectify the sins of the past which are all too often structured into the present system? Is it enough to simply acknowledge the wrong, give pardon, say, I’m sorry? 1. How do you heal a piecemeal personal and collective memory when parts of it are gone, missing or hurtful?

Posted by Ryan Trump on Sunday, May 16, 2021

 

Environmental Justice talk with Dr. Eric C. Pelren from UTM

Dr. Pelren was invited to talk on April 24th at the WCRP Kite Event. Unfortunately, kits don’t fly well in the rain and we had to cancel the event. Professor Pelren is a Wildlife Biology Coordinator at the UT Martin Center for Sustainability. He has a real passion for environmental justice.

 

 

WCRP General Meeting 1/09/2021

Two honest and thought-provoking stories from Will Norrid and Anthony Prewitt. We then broke into breakout groups so we could all chat in reflection on what our guest storytellers shared with us.

Guest Speakers: Will Norrid and Anthony Prewitt

 

Ep. 66 The Weakley County Reconciliation Project

Freedom Day Candlelight Vigil : June 19th, 2021

Over 100 Weakley County community members, including local law enforcement officers, came together in reflection, prayer, on Juneteenth to remember victims of racial injustice and police brutality. This candlelight vigil was not a protest, but an opportunity for our community to come together during these times of tension and unrest.

Freedom Day (June 19th) is a day to celebrate the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to the last enslaved African Americans in Texas in 1865, following the end of the American Civil War.
It’s a time to recognize successes, reflect on hardships, and look to the future of race relations in our community. African Americans experienced many changes between 1865 and 2020. Today, racial inequalities and injustice still exist for African Americans through racial profiling, police brutality, racist comments, and unjustified brutal killings of black men, women, and youth referred to as modern-day lynchings. The evening will remember the victims of police brutality, honor the lives of Weakley County’s lynching victims, and look to a better future.

Full Event Video Available Here: https://www.facebook.com/17207121/videos/10105567625336163/