The Montgomery County Dialogue on Race is in its seventh year of operation. Because we have had some successes in our work, several community groups in this region are considering such a project for their County and have solicited information about our process.
The Montgomery County Dialogue on Race (DOR) began as a call to action. Our goal is “ending racial injustice against African Americans in Montgomery County.” Our objectives are to change specific racially discriminatory policies and practices in the County.
We were not established just to have discussions that might lead to action, but to have conversations about what steps to take and how we should take them. The Dialogue on Race in Montgomery County is actually a misnomer. We are not primarily “talk.” But it is our name and “brand.” So we retain the title.
Many community dialogues/conversations about racial issues are precipitated by some racial event, like for example, police shooting an unarmed black person. We had no such incident, just a desire to address several ongoing racial problems.
Since we wanted to deal with specific issues and we wanted these issues to be representative of the views of African Americans in the County we conducted a series of focus group sessions with a cross-section of blacks in the County.
The focus groups addressed two questions: (1) What is it like to be an African American in Montgomery County? (2) What would you like to tell white County residents of the County?
From the focus group sessions, we gathered a set of racial issues that we organized into five Issue Groups— Education, Law Enforcement, Income and Employment, White Privilege, and Limited Presence (of African Americans on boards and committees in the County).
DOR is led by an interracial group of seven persons. Each of these Issue Groups is chaired by a member of this Steering Committee.
Because of space constraints, I will mention selected results of the work of the Education and Law Enforcement Issue Groups. Three of the objectives of the Education Issue Group are to decrease the achievement gap, reduce differential disciplinary treatment, and recruit African American teachers and administrators.
The achievement gap has not been eliminated, but it has been reduced. Last year no African American student was given an out of school suspension. And the numbers of minority teachers and administrators have been increased substantially.
Critical issues for the Law Enforcement Issue Group are racial profiling and hiring African American police officers. To determine if racial profiling is behind the fact that black motorists are stopped at a much higher rate than whites, the two police chiefs and the Sheriff agreed to collect data on all traffic stops.
Several states, including our neighbors, Maryland and North Carolina, collect such data on all traffic stops. Virginia does not. We are currently analyzing data from the past three years.
To enhance the possibility of steering black youth into police work, we decided to “grow our own.” So we raised funds and started the Books to Badges Program scholarship program at New River Community College (NRCC).
Next, we proposed and the Board of Supervisors for the County approved our plan to provide two free years of education at NRCC for all high school graduates who meet the criteria. Each student gives 80 hours of community service. We also raise funds to help support this county-wide program.
While much work remains, we have had some success as these examples illustrate.
