Systemic Racism in Madison and Beyond
This fall, FBC-Madison will continue to learn about the effects of systemic racism in our city of Madison and in our country as a whole. The FBC-Madison Racial Justice Team has created and implemented programming about racial injustice and systemic racism. Our goals remain the same:
*educate ourselves about racial injustice and systemic racism through such means as reading materials, lectures, films…
*dig deeper through dialogue and discussion
*create individual and collective actions to promote racial justice
*live in ways that reflect our new or enhanced awareness
We will have both a Speaker Series and a Self-Directed Curriculum to pursue these goals.
Like our discussions of the documentary “13th” and the books Stamped from the Beginning…, these activities are designed to educate us by providing information we may not already have. However, our programming is not just to provide information; it is not just an intellectual exercise. We are providing opportunities to reflect, dig deeper, examine personal beliefs, increase our own self-awareness and step outside of our comfort zones. These opportunities are where we can engage in dialogues to express our thoughts and feelings. These opportunities can provide the impetus for our own personal transformations, as well as the impetus to take individual and collective actions to transform systems that perpetuate racism.
What is your calling? What is our calling?
FBC-Madison 2020 Racial Justice Speaker Series
Systemic Racism in Madison: What is our calling?
To learn more about systemic racism in the city of Madison, we are hosting a 6-week series of invited speakers who have expertise in two broad areas: criminal justice & law enforcement and Black maternal health & families. We’re inviting area churches to join us in learning about the effects of this racism and about possible next steps. Please reach out to the FBC Racial Justice Team to learn more or to register and get the Zoom meeting information.
Sessions will meet from 9-10 am on Sundays.
| September 13
M Adams Systemic Racism in Criminal Justice |
 M. Adams is a community organizer and co-executive director of Freedom Inc. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Adams has been in Madison since 2003. Adams’s dad has been incarcerated most of her life and she comes from a community that has been the extreme targets of police violence—and in March 2016 Adams’s mother transitioned after fighting cancer and many forms of violence. Adams is also a Dad and sees her family as a primary motivator for her work. As a queer Black person, Adams has developed and advocated for a strong intersectional approach in numerous important venues. Adams is a leading figure in the Movement 4 Black Lives and Take Back the Land Movement, she presented before the United Nations for the Convention on Eliminating Racial Discrimination, she is a co-author of Forward from Ferguson and a paper on Black community control over the police, and she is the author to intersectionality theory in Why Killing Unarmed Black folks is a Queer Issue. Adams can be regularly be seen in person, on TV or in the newspapers giving presentations, testifying at city council meetings, and energizing crowds at protests.
Pronouns Social Media |
| September 20
Noble Wray Systemic Racism in Law Enforcement |
 Chief Noble Wray retired from the Madison Police Department after more than 30 years of service. He was promoted through the ranks and was appointed Chief of Police of the City of Madison in 2004. Before becoming Chief, Noble received Life Saving and Outstanding Service Awards as a member of the Madison Police Department.
Noble has also excelled as a nationally recognized consultant for law enforcement organizations, such as the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and the Police Foundation in the areas of problem solving, community policing and trust-based policing. He has served on staff at the Police Leadership Institute at the University of Lowell Massachusetts for a course he developed for police managers called “Problem Solving Lessons Learned.” Noble continues to be a national presenter on these topics. In 2011 Noble was asked to present on these topics by the International Conference on Innovative Solutions for Law Enforcement and US Department of Justice’s COPS Office annual conference. He is also a certified trainer/consultant for both Steven Covey and COPS Office Fair and Impartial Policing. Noble has a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is a graduate of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Executive Leadership Course for future police leaders. |
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September 27
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Small and large group discussions on weeks 1 & 2 |
| October 4
Tia Murray Systemic Racism Effects on Black Maternal Health |
 Tia Murray is a certified Birth Doula, through Doulas of North America International (DONA). She is also a certified lactation counselor, and considers herself a community-based doula. Tia was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and always dreamed of giving back to her community. As a non-traditional student and a single mother, she attended the University of Wisconsin- Madison and received her Bachelors of Science in Community and Environmental Sociology. In addition to becoming a Fellow in UW’s Infant, Early Childhood, and Family Mental Health Graduate Capstone program, she also holds an Associates of Science degree, as well as an Ethnic Studies Certificate.
Tia has passionately worked with women, children and families in multiple capacities throughout her professional career. Her work has focused heavily on social justice, reproductive justice, access to culturally sensitive maternal and child health care, and the promotion of community-based intervention and prevention programing. Tia has worked diligently with young children with disabilities or developmental challenges, has supervised home visitors, and has worked with women struggling with homelessness, health issues, substance abuse, and mental health challenges. She strongly believes that it is crucial to meet families where they are at, to be curious and inclusive, and to provide culturally and socially sensitive support services. Tia, a mother of five beautiful children, continues working closely with women and their infants, children and families, to provide early intervention in respect to health inequities across the lifespan. In an attempt to meet a need in her community, she co-founded a community- based doula agency in 2014 that provides culturally situated, and evidence-based pregnancy, birth, infant and lactation support to mothers and families in South Central Wisconsin; Harambee Village: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Breastfeeding Care. Ms. Murray supports community empowerment by providing information, leadership, and advocacy on issues affecting community health and well-being. Tia is a Ph.D. student in Human Ecology: Human Development and Family Studies at the UW -Madison School of Human Ecology. Her research interests include bringing greater awareness to the root causes of residual impacts of racial inequities in maternal and child health. In particular, black infant mortality is something that she would like to bring more academic attention to. Community-based participatory research is of most interest to her work. She is also interested in furthering research on the benefits of doulas on perinatal health outcomes, particularly in communities of color, and in respect to racial disparity. She posits that research and interventions need to address the institutionalized forms of racism that perpetuate persistent racial disparities in the U.S. She also feels it imperative to reframe our language and research in respect to racial health disparities, and to critically analyze and address the root causes of racial inequities and injustices using a reproductive justice framework. |
| October 11
Sagashus Levingston Systemic Racism Effects on Black Families |
 Dr. Sagashus T. Levingston was born in Chicago and raised in the area now known as Bronzeville. She holds a bachelor’s in English Literature from the University of Illinois. She also holds a master’s in Afro-American Studies and a PhD in English literature—both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While her research focused primarily on literature, it was informed by theory and criticism from rhetoric, motherhood studies and black feminism. Her coffee table book, simply titled Infamous Mothers, is inspired by this work and so is Infamous Mothers, LLC. Sagashus and the Infamous Mothers brand has been recognized in several publications, including Demeter Press (the premiere publishing house for motherhood/mothering research), BRAVA Magazine, the Wisconsin State Journal, Forbes and Essence Magazine.
She is a highly sought-after speaker, educator and consultant. Dr. Levingston, or Dr. Sagashus—as she is often called—is a proud button-wearing member of the Doyenne Group, Inc. located in Madison, WI. She also sits on the WWBIC South Central Ambassadorial Advisory Committee. As the proud mother of six children—three boys and three girls, she and her family lives in Madison, WI. |
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October 18
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Small and large group discussions on weeks 4 & 5 |
Flyer for fall 2020 FBC Justice Sunday School Speaker Series
Self-Directed Curriculum on Systemic Racism
Our Racial Justice Team has collected readings, videos, podcasts, etc., that you can choose from to learn more about systemic racism. There are multiple topics and resources are continually added. The arrows at the top of the page indicate the relative length of the material. Some are shorter, some are longer, and some fall somewhere in the middle. You can choose your topic, medium, and length based on your interest and how much time you have available to you. Materials marked with a “++” are faith-based resources. Resources for families and children are also included on the right side of the page.
Click Here: FBC-Madison Self-Directed Curriculum Systemic Racism updated 9.1.2020
