The color of community

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 15th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Today on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, News Coach Kelsey Reed talks with WJI Europe graduate Chiara Lamberti about today’s changing attitudes toward children and family. Here’s a preview.

KELSEY REED: Within the Italian culture, how would they define that— raising children and having children? How would they define its value? There's something that you and I spoke about in our correspondence.

CHIARA LAMBERTI: Yeah, people say that they don't, they desire to don't have child because we actually have a weak economic situation. But we also observe that in wealthier neighborhoods of our city, people with a strong position in their career, they decide to don't have child, and it's not about the career but it's about sacrifice and the idea to take a responsibility and to sacrifice your free time. Having a child it's about to not be the king of your life anymore, or the queen. Being the king of your life or the queen of your life, it's the most valuable thing in our society, now.

EICHER: You can hear the entire episode of Concurrently today wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

REICHARD: Coming next on The World And Everything in It: Things that divide us.

Sometimes they’re physical: a brick wall, a highway, or a railroad track. But often, the things that separate us are unseen. WORLD’s Myrna Brown takes us to one community where people are trying to be honest and intentional about their barriers.

SOUND: [PEOPLE CHATTING, LAUGHING, MUSIC PLAYING]

MYRNA BROWN, REPORTER: Standing underneath pitched tents, volunteers keep the food lines moving.

VOLUNTEER: Grab you a bag… what you want, a hamburger or hot dog? All the condiments down there….

Children speed down inflatable water slides and teens turn corners of the lawn into dance floors.

DJ: I want everyone to come up on stage and we’re going do this…

This outdoor gathering has all the sights, sounds and smells of a traditional fall festival. But families gathered in this local park are celebrating much more than the change of seasons.

ANNOUNCER: So, we’re going to do what we came out here to do which is meet neighbors and meet someone you never met before. We’ve got two volunteers that are going to introduce each other.

Two women, sitting at different picnic tables, underneath a huge tent, walk towards the blue announcer’s tent. The brunette in the baseball cap grabs the mic first.

KRISTEN CAPPIN: Hi, my name is Kristen Cappin, but I’d like to introduce my new friend, Kim Young…

Young is a few inches taller than Cappin and sports a cropped afro. She smiles as Cappin mentions her pride and joy.

CAPPIN: She also wins the “how many grandchildren you have prize.” She has 14! Kim…

KIM YOUNG: Thank you very much Kristen. And I want to introduce my new friend. Her name is Kristen Cappin. She only has nine grandchildren. She asked me to mention that as well.

As the two walk back to their tables, they say they’re glad they stepped out of their comfort zones.

YOUNG AND CAPPIN: Actually, it was awesome. It was kind of fun. And I made a new friend.

YOUNG: Yes, that’s the biggest part. You get to meet people and you make new friends and connections in ways that you normally would not make them.

That’s the spirit behind Community Spirit Day: bringing people who think they have very little in common, together. It was an idea hatched around a kitchen table in a part of the country where differences once fueled division.

SOUND: [CHIT CHAT AND POURING LEMONADE]

Denise D’Oliveira is pouring a glass of lemonade for her friend, Jewel Lawson. They’re both retired educators. But 60 plus years ago, a get-together like this between a white and black woman would have been unheard of. Both D’Oliveira and Lawson live in Daphne, Alabama, a mid-size city about three hours from the state capital of Montgomery.

Alabama was a deeply segregated state in the 1950s and sixties. At times, the center of the civil rights movement. Federal legislation eventually brought an end to legal segregation. But D’Oliveira and Lawson say certain customs and practices continued.

DENISE D’OLIVEIRA: Connie was the first person to ever explain to me about redlining.

Connie was D’Oliveira’s neighbor in the 1990s. She was a black woman trying to build a home in a predominantly white neighborhood. It was D’Oliveira’s neighborhood. D’Oliveira says instead of being treated like any other potential homebuilder, Connie was the victim of redlining, a discriminatory practice of systematically denying services to potential homeowners based on ethnicity. D’Oliveira says she had heard of redlining.

D’OLIVEIRA: But to hear her talk about that being so very much present, it really shocked me and made me ashamed.

Connie and her family eventually built their home in D’Oliveira’s neighborhood. Still, D’Oliveira says that initial conversation haunted her for decades. She finally decided to do something about it: Community spirit day.

D’OLIVEIRA: An event of some kind that would bring the black and white communities together.

But she knew she couldn’t pull it off alone. That’s when she invited her old friend Jewel Lawson and a few others over for lemonade. Together, around her kitchen table, they planned the first community spirit day.

JEWEL LAWSON: And I just jumped on it. I shopped and I put all the food in my den. But, I couldn’t serve it all. We needed somebody to cook. We needed somebody to do several different things. And people stepped up? Oh they stepped up, yes.

PASTOR: Father God we just thank you for both communities. For all of Daphne. For all those volunteers…..

That first year they raised about two thousand dollars and 300 people showed up. They got support from the city government. In 2022 fundraising and attendance also increased, along with their share of typical event planning challenges: everything from choosing the genre of music to creating a rain-day plan. This year, they’re focusing on deeper outcomes.

D’OLIVEIRA: I just didn’t want for everyone to come and plop down with their family or their friends and there be no interaction.

ANNOUNCER: And we have two more volunteers…

As two more perfect strangers step up to the mic to introduce each other, a local mom and her baby girl listen intently from underneath their tent.

TIFFANY BROWN: Where we’re from, how much money we have, our color, our educational background. None of that matters. We’re just all out here to have a good time and be a family.

The day ends abruptly with an unforecast gust of wind, heavy rain, and lightning. Everyone packs up and heads out quickly.

So what happens when the tents come down, community spirit day is over and everyone goes home? Maybe not deep lasting friendship . But Jewel Lawson says people are committed to recognizing the new people they’ve met and remembering their names and stories.

LAWSON: And they wanted to know when the next one is going to be.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Daphne, Alabama.

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