The local chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice, which began in October 2016, is disbanding.
But coordinator Sondra Bolte said members will continue supporting racial and social justice through other avenues locally and nationally. SURJ’s local leadership decided that could more effectively be done in other ways.
“By no means does this mean that people have lost interest in racial justice,” Bolte said. “It’s certainly not that at all.”
Bolte said the group, which she volunteered for since January 2017, “ideally was meant to support other groups and elevate their voices.”
That included Black Lives Matter of Columbus, which began in July 2016.
California native and now-former Columbus resident Amoret Heise said she launched the local group because of various influences. One was the local African American Pastors Alliance’s three-day race relations event in Columbus in August 2015. Another impetus was shootings by white police officers of black men nationwide during the summer of 2016.
Bob Pitman, a part of SURJ’s local leadership, pointed out that several SURJ members currently serve on Bartholomew County Indivisible’s human rights subcommittee, “addressing many of the same issues as SURJ.”
The national group describes its mission on its website.
“We work to connect people across the country while supporting and collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts,” the website reads. “SURJ provides a space to build relationships, skills and political analysis to act for change. We envision a society where we struggle together with love, for justice, human dignity and a sustainable world.”
Among the local successes for SURJ was a Celebrating Our Diversity event May 21, 2017 downtown, conducted in conjunction with the United Nations World Day for Cultural Diversity.
SURJ’s leadership committee is encouraging its members to continue to support Black Lives Matter, the African American Fund, the Bartholomew County Area Chapter of the NAACP, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, people with disabilities, and other groups and communities locally.
