In early 2020, Shreveport’s mayor, Adrian Perkins, appointed the Shreveport Commission on Race and Cultural Diversity (“the Commission”). The Commission was set up as, and continues to be, a private citizens’ advisory group established by, but independent of, the mayor and the city administration. Its members do not receive any compensation and serve only in an advisory capacity to the mayor and the City of Shreveport. The mayor has offered to assist the Commission in its work.
From the start it has been understood by the members of the Commission and the mayor that the Commission, with assistance from the mayor and city administration, would prepare a where-we-are-now database with current statistical information regarding racial disparities within Shreveport and Caddo Parish, would prepare a second database regarding how-we-got-here ultimately providing an accurate history of race relations in Shreveport and Caddo Parish from 1865, and would encourage citizens of Shreveport, including its public officials and employees, to participate in the Dialogue on Race Louisiana Original Series which is sponsored locally by the YWCA of Northwest Louisiana. That series, through a structured dialogue among 10 to 15 blacks and whites facilitated by a black and a white facilitator, builds a common narrative which includes the concepts of white privilege and institutional racism and encourages whites to actually listen to blacks in part by providing a setting in which such speaking by blacks and genuine listening by whites can be experienced.
Mayor Perkins left it to the Commission to develop an approach to change without setting any guidelines. However, he has asked the Commission to investigate and report on two areas of importance in 2020 exemplified by the following questions:
- What has the current pandemic revealed about the health of and access to healthcare for blacks as compared to whites?
- Are there inequities in the treatment of blacks compared to whites by the Shreveport Police Department and the local criminal justice system more generally?
The Commission is tasked to make recommendations for change with respect to these two areas as well as with respect to local education, the local media, and our youth. The Commission has established work groups with respect to these areas and, for example, the statistical database, the historical database, and Dialogue on Race Louisiana.