Using the architecture of the national Civil Rights Memorial as a reference point, Southern Poverty Law Center Outreach Director Lecia Brooks asked local residents to see themselves in an open space in the marble as a part of the ongoing civil rights movement.
Brooks was the keynote speaker Thursday night at the 2018 Human Rights Commission annual dinner meeting, a gathering that Brooks praised for its feeling of community.
“You can learn a lot from just talking to people in a community — walking around and meeting people,” she said of arriving in Columbus on Thursday. “I’ve been in this city not 12 hours yet, and it feels like a community. It’s a nice town. I want you to know you have a warm community — and it’s not like that everywhere in the U.S.”
More than 300 people attended Thursday night’s dinner at The Commons, a gathering with numbers large enough to show that residents are focusing on tolerance and inclusion, she said.
Referencing Mayor Jim Lienhoop’s welcome that included noting that Columbus has the oldest human rights commission in the state, she praised the city for reaffirming the commitment to diversity and, as Lienhoop put it, “another opportunity to remind ourselves of the community we want to be.”
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
