HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC Agenda September 1
Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission Agenda
Thursday, September 1, 2022, 7 PM
Emma J. Harvat Hall
City Hall
410 E. Washington Street
In order to encourage input from the public, the Commission intends to offer the opportunity to
participate in the meeting remotely. However, this meeting is in-person, and those wishing to ensure
their ability to participate should attend the meeting in person. If you instead wish to participate
remotely, you may attempt to do so by joining the below link. Please note that the meeting link and ID
for the first Thursday of each month is different than the link and ID for the third Thursday of each
month.
First Thursday Meetings https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cMIaaV6cTxGwOlWu2-hFHg
ID: 867 2424 8095
Third Thursday Meetings https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lcIl8llPSRq1u0xPlL-1Ew
ID: 895 3695 0485
If you have no computer or smartphone, or a computer without a microphone, you can call in by phone
by dialing (312) 626-6799 and entering the meeting ID when prompted.
Meeting Agenda:
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. ROLL CALL
3. READING OF LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
4. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES FROM AUGUST 4, 2022
5. PUBLIC COMMENT OF ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA (TRC MEMBERS SHALL NOT ENGAGE IN
DISCUSSION WITH THE PUBLIC CONCERNING SAID ITEMS)
6. DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR FACILITATOR SERVICES
7. BRANDING, ENGAGING, AND OUTREACH TO THE COMMUNITY
8. NEXT MEETING SEPTEMBER 15 AT 7 PM
9. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF COMMISSIONERS/STAFF (TRC MEMBERS SHALL NOT ENGAGE IN
DISCUSSION WITH ONE ANOTHER CONCERNING SAID ANNOUNCEMENTS)
10. ADJOURNMENT
If you will need a disability-related accommodation to participate in this meeting please contact
the Equity Director, Stefanie Bowers, at 319-356-5022 or at stefanie-bowers@iowa-city.org. Early
requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your accessibility needs.
August 4, 2022
Draft Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Minutes
Emma J. Harvat Hall, City Hall
Commissioners present: Mohamed Traore, Chastity Dillard, Clif Johnson, Eric Harris, Sikowis
(Christine Nobiss) (via Zoom), Daphney Daniel, Kevo Rivera, Wangui Gathua.
Members not present: Amel Ali.
Staff present: Stefanie Bowers.
Community members who spoke at meeting: Annie Tucker, Felicia Pieper, Larry Schooler, V.
Fixmer-Oraiz, Noah, Ned, Royceann Porter, Billie Townsend, Orville Townsend, T’Shailyn
Harrington.
.
Recommendations to City Council: No.
Meeting called to order: 7:06.
Reading of Land Acknowledgement: Dillard read the Land Acknowledgement.
Approval of Minutes from July 21, 2022: Rivera moved, and Gathua seconded.
Motion passed 7-0. (Sikowis not present for the vote).
Public Comment of Items not on the Agenda: Noah mentioned a recent lawsuit that was filed
against the City by a female firefighter. Ned requested for the City to pay someone to create
transcripts of the meetings.
Follow Up on Joint Work Session with the City Council: Fixmer-Oraiz and Schooler provided an
update: the team is working on modifying the budget to make it more locally based so that the
driving forces are local. Tucker sought any feedback from Commissioners on specific things within
the draft that should be integrated or changed.
Traore will take the lead on redistributing the list of organizations that the Commission had
previously created that were agreeable to working with the TRC on their mission.
Ways the TRC Commissioners Can Support One Another: TRC members discussed what
restorative justice looks like, what rules were violated, and how to involve those victimized and
those offending.
TRC Leadership: Pieper noted that intergenerational issues are the hardest to tackle but that a
restorative justice process should be considered.
Agenda Item 4
Billie and Orville Townsend spoke on comments by Ali as a part of a recent podcast. B. Townsend
asked the TRC to ask Ali to put the podcast episodes back up so that all can hear them. B.
Townsend noted that 75% of Black Voices Project (BVP) members identify as white which is
consistent with the racial demographics of Iowa City and that anyone can join BVP regardless of
race.
O. Townsend has not met Ali and has never said the remarks about Emmet Till that Ali has
attributed to him. Harrington spoke on her very brief experience and feelings as chair of the TRC
prior to being voted out. Harrington believes in the core work of the TRC but that distractions
made hurdles hard to avoid. Ned would like for TRC members to provide a synopsis of each
agenda item prior to their discussion. Noah requested that no decision be made without Ali
present.
Porter spoke on a note received at her home when she returned from a trip about a podcast
series where Ali called her and other members of BVP “coons”. Porter asked if the remarks on the
podcast weren’t so bad, why were they taken down?
Some commissioners discussed how they could evaluate the TRC leadership without hearing the
full audio of the podcasts. Without hearing the podcast episodes, the TRC would be deciding on
hearsay. Other Commissioners feel that they could decide despite not hearing all the audio.
Commission protocol also was mentioned in terms of responsibility, respect, professionalism,
resolving conflicts, and attendance. The TRC needs to build bridges and not burn them, make
better choices moving forward, and move forward on the same page. Members of the TRC plan
on attending and participating in an upcoming BVP meeting.
Traore moved to suspend the title of the chair for the TRC, and Nobiss seconded the motion. The
motion passed 7-0. (Dillard abstained).
Discussion on a proclamation led by Commissioner Nobiss for Missing & Murdered Indigenous
Women led by Commissioner Nobiss: The proclamation for Missing & Murdered Indigenous
Women by the City of Sioux City was presented. Staff went over the process for submitting a
proclamation to the City Council. Rivera and Nobiss will work on adding more detail to the
proclamation.
The American Rescue Plan Act Funds, the Johnson County Direct Assistance Program, and
Excluded Workers: Oliver and Noah spoke in support of the Excluded Workers.
Commission Announcements: Daniels announced her plans to resign from the TRC. Daniels cited
health as the reason.
Adjourned: 9:56 PM.
City Board and Commission meetings are recorded and can be viewed in their entirety by
visiting this link.
AD HOC TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
ATTENDANCE RECORD
YEAR 2022
(Meeting Date)
NAME
TERM
EXP.
1/20 2/3 2/17 3/3 3/17 4/7 5/5 5/19 6/2 6/16 7/7 7/21 8/4
Ali 6/22 P P P P P P P P P P - P -
Daniel 6/22 A P A P P P P A A P - P P
Dillard 6/22 P P A P P P P P P P - P P
Gathua 6/22 P P P P P P P P P A - P P
Johnson 6/22 P P P P P P P P P P - P P
Harris 6/22 A P P P P P P P P P - P P
Nobiss 6/22 A P A P A A A P P P - P P
Rivera 6/22 P P P P P A A A P P - P P
Traore 6/22 P P P A P P P P P P - P P
KEY: P = Present
A = Absent
Agenda Item 6
Handout from
Commissioner Ali
Executive Summary to the Black Women's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report
When Truth is Justice
and Not Enough:
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Contributors
to the Forthcoming Report
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“I think about us, black women, a lot. How many of us
are battered and how many are champions. I note the
strides that have replaced the tiptoe; I watch the new
configurations we have given to personal relationships,
wonder what shapes are forged and what merely bent. I
think about the sister no longer with us, who in rage or
contentment left us to finish what should never have
begun; a gender/racial war in which everybody would lose
if we lost, and in which everybody would win if we won. I
think about the black women who never landed who are
still swimming open-eyed in the sea. I think about those of
us who did land and see how their strategies for survival
became our maneuvers for power.”
Toni Morrison, “ What Moves at the Margins”
Unfinished Business: Regarding The BWTRC and this Report
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The Commissioners
The Commissioners: Truth Keepers
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall Dr. Amrita Kapur Lynn RosenthalMonika Johnson-Hostler Agunda Okeyo
Recy Taylor Ejim DikeStephanie Colon Alisa Del Tufo Alicia Garza
Ruby SalesLoretta Ross Jamia Wilson Quentin WalcottFarah Tanis
Farah Tanis, Chair, BWTRC and Recy Taylor (1919-2017), Commissioner, BWTRC in Abbeville, Alabama
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The grief experienced while writing this report cannot be overstated. Several persons and
consultants have attempted to write this report, but the act of examining and translating the
stories, the terrifying experiences of survivors, reading their responses to “What will it take to
end rape?” has not only been daunting-- it has on several occasions engulfed writers in profound
states of grief and desolation.
To avoid retraumatization, we gave ourselves permission to wait, to pause and to break at
several points in time, sometimes to re-engage in our healing journeys once again. For those
writers and transcribers who did not identify as survivors, the task of holding the stories of
survivors, the review of video footage from the BWTRC, all at once, inspired compassion,
triggered memory, but most of all, evoked despair and immobilization.bThe report illustrates the
truth-telling which took place through this groundbreaking work by Black women.
Through the report we share a blueprint with people who want to reckon with the Black past and
present. Central to that Black past are the experiences of Black women and girls. This report will
never be able to tell all our stories though they exist in books, film, plays, archives and
repositories across the country. Find the whole truth. Tell your children. Use this report as a
resource for telling part of our history, and never forget ours is a history of the most vast stories
from diaspora to diaspora, and from survivor heart to survivor heart.
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Reckoning with Grief: Writing The Report on the
Black Women's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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Our Mandates
Truth, Justice, Healing and Reconciliation
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Accounting for the Sexual Assault of Black Women
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Our Pilgramage South: Visiting Recy Taylor in
Abbeville, Alabama
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"I just want him to
know who I am..."
President Barack Hussein Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
September 13, 2016
Dear President Obama,é
We, the undersigned women of African descent across ethnicities including anti-
violence advocates, survivors, activists, scholars, organizational, and spiritual leaders who
convened the first Black Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Sexual Violence between
2010 and 2016, wish to address the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.é
“I just want him to know who I am.” éThis is what 96 year old Recy Taylor, a civil
rights leader who worked with Rosa Parks to address rape in the Jim Crow South and a survivor of
sexual violence herself, said after a visit to the White House and being asked what she wished
she could say to you, given the chance Mr. President.é Recy Taylor’s 1944 rape case is well-
documented in Alabama governmental and legal documents, the NAACP and research sources.é Recy
is an African-American woman from Abbeville in Henry County, Alabama. On September 3, 1944, Ms.
Taylor, was leaving church when she was kidnapped and brutally gang-raped by six white men. Even
though the men admitted the rape to authorities, two all-white grand juries declined to indict
Taylor's assailants. Ms. Taylor's rape and the subsequent court cases were among the first
instances of nationwide protest and activism among the African-American community and ended up
providing an early organizational spark for the Civil Rights movement with Rosa Parks at the
helm of the anti-rape movement.é
In 2011, after decades of advocacy efforts put forth by her brother Robert Corbitt,
the Alabama House of Representatives apologized on behalf of the state "for its failure to
prosecute Recy Taylor’s attackers."éThe failure to dispense justice in the 1944 case of Recy
Taylor is not surprising, but symptomatic of the larger failing of a society where the
intersection of racism and sexism has failed Black women and girls for over 400 years. For
example, “We Charge Genocide,” a petition submitted to the United Nations by the Civil Rights
Congress in 1951, documented thousands of incidents of violence against African-Americans. While
the modern Black civil rights movement if the 1960’s ushered in a formal end to Jim Crow era
segregation and violence, it has taken decades to gain a modicum of mainstream acknowledgement
of the multiple and covert ways that racial apartheid functions in the United States. It is
still not widely accepted or acknowledged.
Petition to President Barack Obama
written September 13, 2016
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When examined through a gendered lens, it becomes clear how Black women’s unique
experiences with violence are often seen as afterthoughts when addressed at all. éA number of
scholars and advocates, for example, have documented the ways in which the criminal justice
system still functions as a form of a new Jim Crow. Yet, for all the acknowledgement of this
new-era racial apartheid and pervasive abuse by law enforcement officials, it has mainly
focused on the torture and killing of Black men. éThe result is that violence against Black
women and girls, especially sexual violence, often remains invisible and this non-recognition
serves to perpetuate the harm being done. However, Mr. President, whether by police or non-
state actors, the rape and sexual torture of Black women and the justification of this torture
still continue.é The U.S. continues to be one of the few places in the world where rapes have
occurred systematically against an entire race of people, especially the Black women among
these people, and there has been no outcry, no processes for justice, and still little to no
acknowledgement of such violations officially and its impact on Black women and girls today.”
éé
We, the undersigned, ask you, Mr. President, to do what no other president before you
has done -- acknowledge the history of sexual violence against Black women and girls during
slavery and the sexual violence that has been maintained through the enforcement of Slave
Codes, Black Codes, and Jim Crow segregation laws, forming the basis of de jure and de facto
discrimination. éWe ask you to acknowledge the rapes which continue to occur, whose motivations
are rooted in the structural racism and sexism of today.éIn an era when human rights are being
championed by courageous leaders worldwide, we have witnessed countries fulfilling their
obligation of the duty of memory to the most systematically marginalized members of their
societies. éTaiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen recently issued a statement acknowledging the
human rights abuses that the indigenous peoples suffered at the hands of colonialism and
imperialism, and Germany recently formally acknowledged their role in the Herero genocide in
Namibia. éé
As the nation that is looked upon as a beacon and model for human rights, we in the
United States have also witnessed you, Mr. President, acknowledge Black women and girls’ plight
during your 2015 remarks at the 45th Annual Congressional Black Caucus Phoenix Award Dinner. We
have also read about your position on feminism in Glamour Magazine with a declaration that
“this is what a feminist looks like.” We know that never before has a president of the United
States been such a champion of women’s human rights. No other president has come so close to
the much needed recognition and national apology for the systematic sexual humiliation and
dehumanization of Black women and girls in the United States.é
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To make a public statement means to acknowledge that the violence needs to stop. éIf we as a nation
refuse to talk about it, if we as a nation continue to be silent, we as a nation cannot move forward.
For you see, Mr. President, one of the horrors of rape is the silence of victims and survivors. éAnother
is the silence of bystanders and loved ones. However, one of the most deafening horrors is the silence
of a nation and its leaders. Silence only serves to support the ones who cause harm.éFirst Lady Michelle
Obama has already broken one silence, inspiring us during the Democratic National Convention when she
said “every morning, I wake up in a house that was built by slaves.” é
Everyday Black women and girls wake up, exist, live, survive and thrive in a nation built by our
enslaved ancestors’ hands and birthed by their wombs.
We the undersigned, understand that recognition does not equate with justice, and for many of the
testifiers, and survivors more broadly, justice in the form of of the legal system will never be
adjudicated. éHowever, recognition does facilitate healing, both personally, as stated by a testifier
that who shared that “once I broke through that invisible barrier of denial, I was ready to acknowledge
the transition from victim to survivor,” and collectively as a nation.
Like Recy Taylor, we, too, just want you to know who we are Mr. President.éMr. President, let 2016 be
the year where Black women and girls across the nation, not just those in the White House, hear our
President say: “Black women survivors of America’s past and those living today, I hear you. I see you,
and you are recognized.ӎ
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We the undersigned......
Ericka Dixon
Sevonna Brown
Christi Ketchum
Sofia Groopman
Farah Tanis
Shawnda Chapman Brown
Portia D. Brown
Lynn Roberts
Albert Delgado
Darnell Moore
Ahmad Greene-Hayes
Lynn Mercerdi
Dr. Tyffani Dent
Brittany Wright
Hari Ziyad
Kathryn Rolland
Rebecca Browne
Yolo Akili
Saraé K.
Sarah Noble
Anaé Barreto
Beatrice Anderson
Ruben Kennedy
Christina Jaus
Johndalyn Armstrong
Cynthia Kitt
Verushka Gray
Ericaé T.
Domonique Freeman
CTé Shim
Kenisha Coy
Luciana Polney
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Efe Osaren
Tasha Robinson
Cassandra Ritas
Tiffanyé McFadden
Benjamin Griffith
Aileen Smith
Tynesha McHarris
Cheryl Currie
Yaneris G.
Sheba Lo
Lenelle Lewis
Lavon Morris-Grant
Janisha Gabriel
Daniela Zarate
Jillé Humphries
Nyleé Fort
CeCelia Falls
Sher Tillet
Zachary Miceli
Monica Dennis
Nina Angela Mercer
Danielleé McGuire
Isabel Abraham-Raveson
Angela Myers
Carlaé Patterson
Jadé S.
Dorothy Patterson
Imeldaé B.
Maurern Silverman
Joanne Smith
LeConteé Dill
Michael Wiseman
Terrié Herring
Jacob Brown
Shapelé LaBorde
Melody Ledwon
Marilyn Louis
Amberé Aldredge
Saritaé Smith
Ashleyé Terrell
Tanim Awwal
Betty Bolden
Alexandra Wilcox
Alexa King
Sally Laskey
Keslie Spottsville
Seanniece Bamiro
Yvonne Holmes
Justin French
Tammie Ross
Tonya Lovelace-Davis
Monet Phillips
T. DeWitt Smith, Jr.
Kerlisha Broomes
Linda Dixon
Vanessa Green
Jelani Anglin
Cheryl Springs
Genesis Aquino
Mariko Meyer
K.C. Washington
Alexandra Keegan
Portia Brown
Tasasha Henderson
Alexis Posey
Jan Christiansen
Taina Bien-Aime
Nicole Lilian
Stephen Fitzstephens
Janine Abuyuan
Sheila Rainey
Emily Parker
Tahir Della
Irviennne Goldson
Lisaé Richardson
Sarah Washington
Cashel Campbell
Brienne Colston
Maria Ramos-Faulkner
Donna Holland
Mira Yusef
Michellle May-Curry
Shawnee Benton Gibson
Chris Riegg
Monica Simpson
Kiraé Aiken
Michelle Adzido
Jacquelineé Johnson
Marleneé Ware
Claudine Saliba-Rawls
Monica Casper
Regina Langley
Terraé Brown
Deborahé Hope
Dayanara Marte
Erica Flashman
Betty Reardon
Kathy Pierce
Carmen Williams
Yamil Anglada
Kelsey Koger
Delores Murphy
Capricia Davis
Dora Howard
M. Scott
Shriellya Stallings
Crystal Jones
Tara Daniels
Waffiyah Saleem
Christine Nemeth
Selena Jones
Raven Ealey
Victoria W.
Joelle Schofield
Corynn Loebs
Daryl Fortson
Jane Parker
Sally MacNichol
Rasheena Perry
Michelle Jennings
Charisse Audra Collier
Beatrice Santa-Wood
Leah Dirkse
Masani McGee
Ever Saskya
Aida Fitzgerald
Chanelle Helm
Brigid Turner
Jamila Childs
Steve Petrey
Siobhan Dingwall
Gloria Jones
Domineek Martin
Latoria White
David Canton
LaToya Anderson
Cassidy Green
Ugochuku Nwachuku
Jay Sterrenberg
Angela Lee
Aaliyah Cobbs
Angela Blount
Erica Flashman
Betty Reardon
Kathy Pierce
Carmen Williams
Yamil Anglada
We the undersigned......
Amanda Bartell
Shannon Heady
Walter Barillas-Schwartz
Rachel Bryson
Keisha Varnell
William Thomas
Trish Smith
Arlene Spark
Belva Flowe
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The BWTRC was not an attempt to document all the violations against Black women.
It was a commitment to bring to light what has been largely missing from public
discourse in America: the root causes of sexual violence against women of African
descent in the United States.
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A Litany of Sexual Offenses- Testifier
I remember it like it was yesterday! My mom's new boyfriend
always looked at me funny. One night he snuck into my room and
made me take off my clothes and told me to be quiet. His weight
was heavy. When I realized what he was doing, I tried pushing
him off but he was too big. It hurt like hell, I cried but I was
embarrassed. Why didn't I say something? This happened for
about a year, and when I did get the courage, he threatened to kill
me. Why didn't I say something? Why did God take me through
that? Why did this happen? Why didn't I say something?
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"...we wanted justice, without which there could be no healing for many of us."
Conjuring Justice with Our Own Hands
After three years of unyielding and
unrelenting dialogue with UN Women,
and requests for support to over one
hundred country Missions to the UN,
almost all of them turning us away,
Black women entered the United
Nations and took up space in a U.N.
Panel Debate on Justice, Recognition
and Development focused on the Status
of Women of African Descent in the
United States.
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"A safe and secure platform for the victims to disclose who
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of what is considered unlawful touching or sexual assault.
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full weight of their atrocity as justice is served."
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A Historic Tribunal
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Tribunal Hearings on the Sexual Assault of
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