The Capital Times by John Nichols & John Nichols

Author:John Nichols & John Nichols
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Reverend Alex Gee, a Madison pastor, wrote a groundbreaking essay, “Justified Anger,” that The Capital Times published as a cover story in December 2013.

CAPITAL TIMES PHOTO BY MICHELLE STOCKER

Gee’s story, which appeared in December 2013, about ten weeks after the Race to Equity report, was another eye-opener for many community leaders. “I admit I am frustrated that our city seems so enamored with its historic and national reputation as a liberal bastion that we either ignore our current social challenges, along with racial and economic disparities, or we blame our issues on individuals and families moving to Madison without fully accepting rightful culpability for certain homegrown problems,” he wrote.

Gee told of his own encounters with racial profiling when, for example, he was pulled over and interrogated by police in “my own church parking lot as I arrived for my standing Saturday evening meeting. How could I not be angry when the officer told me he was looking for a red car that had been driving down the wrong side of the road (my car is clearly black, evident even in a dimly lit church parking lot)? I was questioned (albeit politely) about what I was doing there in a public space at 9 p.m. As questioning continued, my associate pastor, a white male, was already parked in the church lot and came to investigate. The officers never asked to see his identification, never asked his name nor ascertained why he was parked in the parking lot waiting for me to arrive,” he wrote.

Gee went on to describe the disparities he had seen during his three decades of preaching in Madison: the academic achievement gap in the schools, the huge disparity in incarceration rates, the lack of minorities in key business and governmental positions, the huge inequities in the health of whites versus blacks.

“As a male African American Madisonian, I am issuing a call that goes far beyond the various task forces that now exist. We need more. We need to bring national attention to the various crises of our community,” he wrote. “I challenge the entire community to become concerned and involved.”

Fanlund threw the weight of The Capital Times behind Gee’s challenge. Under his leadership, the paper organized community forums that drew hundreds of people to hear more about the issue and learn what they could do to help. The newspaper launched a website called “Together Apart” to provide an evolving and in-depth guide to gaps between whites and African Americans in Madison. And the newspaper’s charitable arm, the Evjue Foundation, stepped up with a $150,000 grant to Gee’s “Justified Anger” project in which African Americans themselves would find solutions rather than be told by white leaders what was best for them.

“Whenever I write or talk about signs of incremental progress over the past two years,” Fanlund explained in December 2015, “the same concern—fear even—is frequently invoked. It is this: We have had an awakening in Madison, and that is wonderful and reflects well on our citizenry. Such good intentions are neither a given nor found everywhere in Wisconsin.

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