As the financial roller coaster continues, those working to close the wealth gap and achieve economic security in the South are working more vigorously than ever.
Those efforts were evident during a 2 ½-day Southern Regional Asset Building Coalition (SRABC) conference, which brought together a diverse group of people to discuss challenges when it comes to economic growth in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The conference, titled "Building a Lifetime of Economic Security: Mobilizing for Change," was held in mid-October in Jacksonville, Fla. More than 200 individuals made the trip, including community and faith-based organization leaders, representatives of financial institutions and government entities, policy advocates, researchers, and members of the public sector. Presenters included Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson, ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson, PolicyLink Founder Angela Glover Blackwell, inequality and American politics expert Dorian Warren, and housing and finance expert James Carr.
Wilkerson's book, "The Warmth of Other Suns," tells the true tale of the "Great Migration" of black citizens from the South to other regions of the country, as they searched for a better life. Wilkerson emphasizes that African Americans are the only group of Americans who have had to move in order to be recognized as the citizens they are. "It's not about migration really at all," she says. "It's about freedom and how far people were willing to go to achieve it." These individuals and families who moved to other regions not only changed their futures, but the future of the entire country.
Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as the Chicago bureau chief with The New York Times. She is the first black woman to win a Pulitzer and the first black American to receive the award for individual reporting.
In addition to the three key presenters, Warren and Carr, the conference featured three concurrent workshops: Building Wealth in African American Communities, presented by Trina Williams Shanks of the University of Michigan and Stephanie Boddie of the University of Pittsburgh; The Racial Wealth Gap, led by Anne Price and Gabriela Sandoval of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development and Nino Rodriguez of the Center for Family Policy and Practice; and Partnering with Industry and Employers to Promote Financial Security and Mobility, presented by Krista Comer of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.
SRABC, funded by the Ford Foundation, is a partnership of state coalitions in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi that is dedicated to developing and advocating for policies and programs that support low-income families and sustain communities across this region. Its mission is to support member asset building coalitions to advance state, regional and national policies that build economic security over a lifetime for low-wealth communities.
The annual conference is viewed by participants as an important venue to network with others in the field, learn from peers, share challenges and triumphs, and above all to band together in this fight for economic security.