This day-long event for the greater Pittsburgh community offers workshops, art, entertainment, dialogue, and networking around the struggle for civil rights, economic justice, and peace.

The Summit will begin with registration and continental breakfast, followed by remarks from event organizers and Tim Stevens, founder of the Black and White Reunion and founder and chair of B-PEP (the Black Political Empowerment Project).  Celeste Taylor, vice chair of B-PEP and coordinator of the Racial Equity Monitoring Project (REMP), will release a report on Phase I of REMP, a project of B-PEP and the Hill House Association.  Taylor also will launch Phase II, the Regional Equity and Inclusion Project, at the Summit. 

The Black and White Reunion is very excited to confirm the participation of minister, journalist, and Hip Hop artist Jasiri X who will perform during the opening program.  Morning workshops will be followed by lunch, afternoon workshop sessions, and a closing presentation and art activity.

The theme of the 11^th annual Summit Against Racism is "The Power of One: Be the Change." This idea continues the discussion begun at last year's Summit, which focused on commitment to individual and collective action. Workshops will address such issues as racism in schools and universities, effective methods of interracial community organizing within faith communities, prisons and release programs, employment and economic justice for neighborhoods, race and class divisions in the peace movement, health care as a human right, and others. "Speaking the Unspeakable," a workshop on talking openly about racism, returns by popular demand each year.  Participants may select their morning and afternoon workshops the day of Summit from a final list published in the commemorative program book.

Robert Maddock and Ramona Roberts are co-coordinating this year's Summit Against Racism and were among the co-founders of the Black and White Reunion, a racially diverse group that was organized in reaction to the killing of black businessman Jonny Gammage by police in 1995.

"We hold the Summit on the Saturday after Martin Luther King Day every year to make the very most of people's commitment to ending racism," explains Roberts.  "We work hard to bring Martin Luther King's spirit with us - the commitment to ending racism, poverty and war."

"If we do not take the police killing of Jonny Gammage as a call to action and act accordingly, we just prolong and encourage more overt acts of racism with their terrible consequences," says Maddock. 

This year's Jonny Gammage Memorial Scholarship essay contest asked law students how the jurisdiction of Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board – an independent agency that investigates citizen complaints about improper police conduct -- can be expanded throughout Allegheny County. The winners of the scholarship will be announced at Summit.

Approximately 400 people attend the Summit Against Racism each year. Following this year's afternoon workshops, participants are invited by facilitator Paul Hawkins to make their own "I Am the Change I Have Been Waiting For" t-shirts.  This will allow each person the opportunity to take home a t-shirt incorporating a "mandala," with the symbols of their choice to represent where they come from, what inspires them, their goals, their special gifts, and the things they carry in their hearts.

"Democracy defeated racism on the ballot this past November and we are going to celebrate this shift in the fabric of our society. African-Americans are experiencing the positive effects of that in ways many of us never imagined, " declares Stevens. "Defeating racism in a national election is not the same as defeating it in our communities and workplaces and local governments.  Black and white people have to work together to end racism and the social inequity here at home.  The Summit Against Racism is our invitation for them to do so."

Throughout the past thirteen years, the Black and White Reunion has coordinated ten annual Summits Against Racism and provided education, advocacy, and direct leadership for many campaigns and programs in support of racial justice and reconciliation in the greater Pittsburgh region. Specific strategies for forging  racial equality have included the Mural Bridge project, which used art to promote racial understanding among black and white people of different ages and backgrounds; the Jonny Gammage Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a local law student; as well as the annual Summit Against Racism.

Registration for the 11^th annual Summit Against Racism is $25 for adults ($30 at the door) and includes all-day admission, a commemorative program book, continental breakfast, lunch, make-your-own t-shirt, and one-year membership in the Black and White Reunion. Limited income and student rates, group discounts, and scholarships are also available.

East Liberty Presbyterian Church is located at 116 S. Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206. To register or for more information, visit www.blackandwhitereunion.org. The Black and White Reunion can also be reached at (412) 441-3800 x 32 or blackandwhite_reunion@yahoo.com.