Delta State University’s award-winning race relations conference — Winning the Race — returns for its second year March 30-31.
This year’s conference is titled “Winning the Race: Through Hearts & Minds. A Conversation on Building Connected Communities.”
The inaugural program of 2014 was designed as an innovative academic conference, and the 2015 schedule is predicted to build on the groundbreaking dialogue.
“Winning the Race promises to match or exceed this past year’s successful and award-winning program,” said Delta State President William N. LaForge. “Delta State is a cultural ‘mecca’ that champions and celebrates the multicultural identity of the Mississippi Delta, and provides leadership and programming for the community and region.
“The goal of the conference is to promote dialogue on race relations by building conversation that will bring together diverse communities in the Delta.”
The schedule of events will once again place special emphasis on student-level concerns, but will also offer a wide selection of sessions for all attendees — including such topics as social justice, civil rights and law, economic opportunities, education, culture and community.
Keynoting the affair is Clifton Taulbert, Pulitzer-nominated author of the book “The Invitation: The Lingering Lessons of Race and Place.”
Taulbert, a former Oklahoma banker, is president and founder of the Building Community Institute, a consulting company focused on human capital development and organizational effectiveness. Since the founding of the company, his philosophy has been embraced by such companies as Lockheed Martin, Bank of America, Baxter Healthcare, Pacific Coast Gas, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and K-12 and post-secondary academic leadership around the world — from China to the Mississippi Delta.
The Winning the Race Committee developed the conference with three overarching goals: engage in conversations with campus and community constituencies that will build an appreciation for diversity differences and a spirit of community through shared ideas; promote a broad discourse on race relations by building conversations to bring together diverse communities in the Delta through sharing of ideas and building cooperation; and to rekindle a hope that Delta communities will move toward greater equality and forward and open thinking while reducing racial disparities and tensions.
Co-chairs for the conference are Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Dr. Myrtis Tabb and professors Dr. Paulette Meikle and Dr. Chuck Westmoreland.
“The 2015 conference will build on the momentum created by the success of the award-winning 2014 conference,” said Meikle. “The conference is more than just an intellectual discourse on race relations. As the conference slogan suggests, it is about ‘Winning the Race through Hearts and Minds.’ Therefore, it is imperative that we continue dialogue on positive race relations as well as meaningful actions to foster understanding, to build strong relationships and chart pathways for connected communities.
“Under the conference tracks a wide selection of sessions are designed to address a diverse set of issues such as civil rights, racial and economic equity, racial healing, healthcare and racial challenges, cultural awareness, art, music, diversity in the college curriculum, and diversity and student leadership.”
In addition, professor Garry Jennings, chair of the Student Engagement Planning Committee, is working with a group of Delta State students to create a documentary on campus race relations and the wider Mississippi Delta community. The documentary will be publicly shown at the conference.
There are also a number of additional student-centered activities added to the schedule this year, including an art competition, poster competition and essay competition.
Distinguished guest former Mississippi Governor William Winter will return to the stage to moderate the opening session March 30 at 6:30 p.m. Winter has agreed to serve as chair of the conference’s external advisory committee, comprising outstanding individuals in the field.
Along with race reconciliation efforts as a state political leader, Winter is also credited with the establishment of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation on the University of Mississippi’s Oxford campus. Staff from the institute will be leading activities at the conference.
The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation works in communities and classrooms, in Mississippi and beyond, to support a movement of racial equity and wholeness as a pathway to ending and transcending all division and discrimination based on difference.
A finalized schedule of events is still in progress. All conference updates will be published at https://www.deltastate.edu/president/winning-the-race/.
