Athens Justice and Memory Project

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the October 20th meeting will be remote. The regular meeting for the Athens Justice and Memory Project will be available to watch live on YouTube at the link available on the ACCGov calendar. 10/20/21 Meeting Minutes Athens Justice and Memory Project Team Meeting Wednesday, October 20, 2021 5 pm – 6 pm Virtual WebEx Meeting A. Hattie Thomas Whitehead starts meeting stating this team was assembled by our Mayor in September 2020 and this team is working together on avenues of atonement outlined in the Linnentown Project resolution. This is the 12th meeting of the Justice and Memory Project. B. Moment of silence for Linnentown decedents o The Committee will take a moment of silence to acknowledge and show respect to those who are no longer with us. C. Some members are calling in via phone i.Hattie Thomas Whitehead, Committee Chair and First Descendant of Linnentown ii. Bobby Crook, First Descendant of Linnentown iii. Linda Thomas, First Descendant of Linnentown iv. Charlene Marsh, Secretary v. Dr. Jennifer Rice, UGA Professor and Researcher, Parliamentarian vi. Kelly Girtz, ACC Gov Mayor, non-voting/supporting member vii. Commissioner Parker, ACCGov Commissioner, District 2 viii. Niki Jones, ACCGov Assistant Manager, non-voting/supporting member ix. Krystle Cobran ACCGov Inclusion Officer, non-voting/supporting member x. Selah Gardiner, ACCGov Inclusion Office, non-voting member D. Charlene Marsh read minutes from September 20, 2021 meeting. Asks for motion to approve o Hattie Thomas Whitehead moves to approve minutes. o Dr. Jennifer Rice seconds o All voting member unanimously approve E. Dr. Jenn Rice gives update on ‘Walk of Recognition’  o The team of people working in this includes UGA graduate students, the Justice and Memory Team, wonderful support from various offices in the City- true team collaborative effort o First step in conceptualizing this mosaic and the role it plays in the ‘Walk of Recognition’ o The first workshop on the Linnentown Mosaic Project is coming up this Saturday, October 23rd at Lay Park from 1-3pm o Team is working hard to implement various activities that will be creative, hands- on, really casual, lots of different options o Goal to getting people’s first thoughts, reactions, and stories, feelings about Linnentown and the mosaic in general and people on the team that will be gathering information o Team of people working on making sure that information is distributed widely and through multiple formats around town- show flyer- local businesses, social media, phone calls, wide, broad, inclusive, family-friendly, having some snacks, productive and positive experience and learning a lot from first workshop o Hattie Thomas Whitehead mentions that whenever she is speaking, she has had a sign-up sheet for volunteers for the community workshops and the Black History Center, thanks for the communication o Jenn Rice says that if anyone has questions about this project they can email linnentownmosaic@gmail.com o Social Distancing, indoor/outdoor, masks, games will be in place F. Hattie Thomas Whitehead update on Black History Center o Getting volunteers from wherever she speaks to be a part of the subgroup committees o Acting as Chairperson until all the committees up and running o Talking about having a Project Manager coming at some point in time for the Black History Center o Asks Charlene Marsh for any updates on Community Outreach subgroup o Charlene Marsh has no update o Still do not have Public Historian to lead the subgroup, but there are volunteers to be on the subgroup, same with Fundraiser subgroup o Strategist is Tommy Valentine o Continuing to get these pieces of the puzzle moving when subgroups are up and running this will give an understanding of communication and input from the community o Had a meeting this past Friday, brainstorming meeting with group from community to figure out what that space at the Costa Building would look like once they get up and running in the latter part of 2022 o A lot of effort going into this, going to have another brainstorm meeting next month so that they can get it up and ready to roll at the end of 2022 o Asks for questions o Dr. Jenn Rice sounds like a lot of great effort and assembling a great team o Hattie Whitehead Thomas asks Dr. Jenn Rice if she wants to talk about the partnership form G. Dr. Jenn Rice updates on o Through the wonderful work of the members of this team, in particular Hattie Thomas Whitehead and Bobby Crook and others working to create collaborations between UGA and some of the projects this committee has rolling, so many great projects that are trying to roll out o Have a lot of relationships with various people at UGA o There’s a need to start understanding and coordinating what projects are going on at UGA as it relates to this committee in a more formal way o Drafted an agreement or understanding o Asking for two things as it comes to research and data collection, putting into formats that are research products, this is not other things, this is running data and producing reports, formal research outputs o Wrote up a document and can circulate this document however they need to circulate it o If you’re doing work under the direction of the Justice and Memory Team that you provide regular updates that can be read on this call, if there’s a lot of people doing work they need to know what they’re doing and need to figure out a process for that, sometime every month all of the point people need to send a description of what’s going on to be read at these meetings o Asked if you’re going to present or publish research (academic forums) that you need to run it by this team, just run it by and don’t know if it needs approval or what, but people out there talking about Linnentown and the Justice and Memory work and they don’t always know who it is , what they’re saying, if it’s students, what it is, what format it’s in, what journal it’s going to, trying to understand how to create at least some relationship between when research information is being published or presented in academic forums- academic conferences, academic journals o Asked them to give them notice of that so the Justice and Memory team can provide feedback on that, not sure if they used the word ‘approval’, and aware of when and where activities” o Hattie Thomas Whitehead states they want them to give feedback, when and where, to ensure that wrong info is not being communicated, just want to make sure they know the communication o Dr. Jenn Rice states that she and Hattie Thomas Whitehead are open to thoughts on this, it does get complicated when you have lots of people working on tasks that either directly or indirectly related to what this team is supposed to be advising on, and what they realized is there’s a moment that this could and maybe is beginning to get away from this team and this is a solution to ask for regular updates and to have any research output provided to the team. Asks if this seems reasonable or make more formal as a more formal process? o Right now it’s a good faith thing and if you’re working with something that’s Justice and Memory that you talk to us, don’t think it’s something that can be enforced, asks again what people think o Mayor Girtz states that he and Mariah and a lot of folks on the call have to do the ‘cat herding’ game and try and figure out who’s doing the same work you’re doing,  aware of each other ,explicit about collaborative work, using that approach, don’t need to bring a heavy hammer to the table, it’s important to all of us, just awareness of who’s all working in the space o Commissioner Parker states putting on her activist hat brief and asks if this also extends to direct actions people are taking in the community? She heard of something recently and she doesn’t know o Dr. Jenn Rice she was aware of the direct action also, and it was completely autonomous and this has nothing to do with this committee. Her thinking this has to with research which she thinks they need to include some kind of academic component because that is somehow breaking a barrier from cross-collaboration to just taking it, only research activities that are directly under would be where we are advising the City on. o Could see a situation where someone presented something at a conference about whatever but hadn’t been discussed in this room and the proper advice hadn’t been made or what that means for the City is asking and is out there somewhere else before this committee who is overseeing that action or that task has a had a chance to see it and just want to avoid a situation like that o Mayor Girtz states that is helpful, and part of the reality is that this is publicly available data, sometimes people take publicly available data whether from the census or Dept of Public Health and it gets used in all sorts of ways or contexts that maybe the data generators would not have envisioned, but just being honest about it now is the right approach o Hattie Thomas Whitehead asks for any more feedback or questions to Dr. Jenn Rice or herself o Dr. Jenn Rice states it’s not a policing thing, it’s an awareness, it’s being a conduit and a two-way communication between this committee and individual researchers H. Hattie Thomas Whitehead give update on Linnentown Quilt o Linda Thomas leaves meeting via phone o Linnentown Quilt is being worked on, beautiful quilt, will be out be by the end of this year or first quarter of next year o Quilt squares still being worked on and people are being real creative with the ones they’re working on o Asks if anyone has anything else that’s on the agenda and wants to elaborate about anything else on the agenda o Asks for questions o Commissioner Parker thanks Dr. Jenn Rice and Hattie Thomas Whitehead for their work and keeping everyone updated and getting things done in the community o Hattie Thomas Whitehead thanks for getting things done and trying to get everything as streamlined as they can so they discuss everything on the call I. Meeting adjourns at 5:32 pm I N CL US I O N O F F I C E T H E U NI F I E D G O V E R NM E N T O F A T H E NS -C L A R K E C O UN T Y , G E O R G I A P. O. Box 1868  Athens, Georgia 30603 (706) 613-3015  Fax (706) 613-3029 www. ac cg ov . c o m