Citizens gathered at Kendall-Perkins Park to express their concerns about the treatment of issues in the Baptist Town neighborhood to government officials Tuesday evening.
A common concern throughout the meeting was the lack of knowledge in the community about Owensboro Black history — along with national history — in the schools. Event organizer Mandy Roby announced she and the Owensboro Community Collaborative Task Force plan to have an oral history series that dives into the Black history in Owensboro covering topics like Rainey Bethea.
Brionna Greer, founder of the non-profit Breaking the Cycle, said she has found several high school students do not know about many Black historical figures as they aren’t taught about those figures in school.
Greer said when she attended Owensboro High School in 2017, African American history was an elective class to take. She believes that because of this, many students now do not know many figures outside of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman.
During the meeting, there was also concern on the lack of practice of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout the city in educational places. Roby noted that local districts like Owensboro and Daviess County public schools have created positions to address those issues, but she hopes to see more.
One way the organization is trying to get diversity and inclusion introduced is through Michael Johnson, vice chair of Owensboro Public Schools Board of Education. Johnson said that the board is welcoming conversations about race in the school district.
As Johnson has served on the board, he said he has created equity boards and organizations to help OPS get a better grasp on diversity in their system.
“I don’t wanna see anybody fall behind,” he said. “So this equity work that you keep hearing about — and it’s got a lot of ruffled feathers going on — as far as diversity and inclusion it’s important because it shows a culture of everybody, not just one but to everybody. It’s multicultural there.”
Members of the community also said they have a concern with the amount of funding from the city to support Black entrepreneurs and the lack of available resources for them to utilize. Rene Felden said when she grew up in the city — and now that she visits the community often — she noticed this issue and she said it ends up pushing people away from the city.
“The problem that I see since I’ve been coming back and forth every other month is funding for the Black community for entrepreneurs who are trying to get away from the street life to do stuff for their lives, but they don’t have the funding. They don’t know the resources,” Felden said.
Commissioner Mark Castlen said he has seen the efforts of the community come together to make changes throughout the community thus far.
“We’ve laid the groundwork in a lot of different areas as far as inclusion and attending and working together as a community,” he said. “We’re trying to solve problems.”
