Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

For updates on Stowe Center programs and events, sign up for our enews at http://harrietbeecherstowe.org/email.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Recap of the Key Issues Forum and a call to action

Community members joined together in discussion Tuesday evening for a Key Issues Forum on race politics in the contemporary U.S. Panelists included Dr. Lois Brown (Chair of African American Studies at Wesleyan University), William Howe (State Dept. of Education, multicultural education, gender equity and civil rights), Orlando Rodriguez (Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission), and Adrienne W. Cochrane (CEO, Urban League of Greater Hartford).  The event was held in conjunction with The Hartford Courant and was moderated by Laurie Perez of FoxCT.

With a packed crowd of all ages and backgrounds in attendance, discussion ranged from education equity, to housing, to jobs and racial stereotypes. At the end of the forum, panelists were posed with instructing the audience of one thing everyone can do to improve issues of race relations and progress our communities forward. Answers included reading texts from a diverse range of authors to having conversations with those of different races and backgrounds. The panelists stressed that moving the U.S. to a post-racial and post-racist society will take daily effort and dedication to address the biases and systemic racism that plague public policies and social institutions. If you missed the program, you can watch it On Demand through the Connecticut Network (see below). 

We would like to encourage the continuation of this important conversation! What are steps you will take to address racial inequities? What are some challenges we all might face? How do we overcome these challenges? Let us know!      

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