History of AFRA

 

The Advocates for Race Amity in Pinellas County, FL (AFRA) had its beginning on April 3, 2019 when a small interracial group gathered in a home for viewing of the National Center for Race Amity (NCRA) film An American Story: Race Amity and the other Tradition. In the discussion that followed, the group agreed that it should figure out ways to share it with as much of the public as possible. 

From very modest beginnings, AFRA as of September 2020 has over 70 people on its membership list from sharing the film almost monthly in various public venues, and have facilitated discussions around the issues of race in our country after showings. AFRA members have also deepened understandings among group members and agreed that all endeavors needed to be interracial.

From the beginning AFRA reached out to the NCRA, the producer of the film, and learned that NCRA was promoting the 2 nd Sunday of June as Race Amity Day (RAD). NCRA encouraged this celebration in towns, villages and states throughout the country and the securing of proclamations for it from governmental officials. The ultimate vision of NCRA was to make Race Amity Day become a national holiday celebrating the USA motto from the earliest days of the country E Pluibus Unum. 

Most AFRA members doubted being able to do anything about the celebration locally, in Pinellas County, on such short notice. But one group member suggested why not show the film on that day, in a public venue, with appropriate advertising by each of us in our own circles, as a celebration of Race Amity Day?
 

The meeting for RAD on June 9 th occurred at the Clearwater Baha’i Center with about 30 people present to watch the film, more than tripling the original number. A very lively and deep discussion followed, with most in attendance adding their email addresses to our list. With various members of AFRA divided into subcommittees to begin work on outreach, the creation of guidelines for discussion and those who would be facilitating, including evaluation forms and sign in sheets.

The League of Women Voters of North Pinellas County (LWVNPC) agreed to be a co sponsor, allowing for its name to be used in scheduling meeting rooms at libraries and other places as a 501c-3 status and the Pinellas Community Foundation (PCF) gave a contribution to offset costs of printing business cards,
flyers and film licensing agreements.
 

Over the course of the next 7 months AFRA arranged to have the film shown at 2 libraries, 3 places of
worship, a community center and a private school.

One AFRA member, with a connection to the historical museum for Pinellas County, Heritage Village in Largo, suggested a showing there. The group then agreed that Heritage Village would be a perfect venue for a county-wide celebration of RAD. Heritage Village staff members were very receptive to the idea, stating that AFRA’s goals were right in line with theirs so they could sponsor the gathering themselves if AFRA prepared the program. Program ideas included having different ethnic groups coming together on the spacious grounds of the Heritage Village, sharing their cultures with music, dance and food. AFRA approached the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society (SPIFFS), which also had connections with Heritage Village and received positive responses about their interest.

Then the pandemic struck.

Everyone being so uncertain about the future, day by day, then month by month, the group realized that it couldn’t count on the Heritage Village being open by June 14 th , and began to think about having a celebration by zoom. The first AFRA monthly meeting by zoom happened in April 2019. At the April meeting an AFRA member suggested that we, as a group, probably needed to examine our
own implicit biases before facilitating discussions with other groups. We had agreed that with the discussion questions prepared by our subcommittee, every member of the group should be qualified to facilitate discussions. We decided at each meeting for the last 20 to 30 minutes use the question cards in the “Breaking it down” game available from NCRA to go deeper into the subject how we feel and deal with race.

Out of the collaboration among RAD promoters in different counties of FL, accessed through NCRA, two other counties’ Boards of Commissioners, besides the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners, issued proclamations for RAD in their county for 2020. At least three other counties’ affiliates intend to ask
their county commissioners for a proclamation in 2021. With this much support and collaboration, an appeal to the state of FL for recognition of it as a state holiday is much more likely.

In late springtime, months-long communications with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) of Eckerd College finally resulted in an invitation from OLLI for a showing of the film, with discussion, as part of a 2-hour course on November 9th, 2020. OLLI curriculum director of development contacted AFRA saying that OLLI had set up a committee to attract more minorities to its student body and did AFRA have any ideas about groups to invite for consultation? After suggesting a few organizations with large minority memberships, AFRA was invited to participate in the Diversity Initiative Subcommittee of OLLI.

AFRA decided to send a proposal for a presentation to NCRA for its annual November 2020 conference and had its proposal accepted with a few members making the presentation.

The latest development is a new member is developing a Blog for our use. Facebook will be able to take interested people to it where they can check for upcoming events, links to matters related to race amity, and other pertinent information. Along with feedback/insights about meetings, people can make
suggestions/recommendations, and find documents useful to AFRA. It is truly a process.

 

YOU CAN BECOME A PART OF OUR HISTORY!  Are you interested in joining the AFRA group?  Would you like to attend a viewing of the film?  Contact us at advocatesforraceamitypine@gmail.com

 

Have any ideas for helping AFRA spread their message?  Leave a comment below!