On Saturday morning, the Organization Against Racism: Cumberland County will gather community members to discuss immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, changes under the Trump administration and more.
The discussions will be part of the non-profit’s workshop “The State of Systemic Racism in Cumberland County.” To be held at Crossroads Church on McArthur Road from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the workshop will let residents share their concerns about disparities and injustices across the county.
“We’re going to address issues of local systemic racism and institutional racism in our education system, in our health system, in the big realm of social justice,” Anne Smiley, vice president of the Organization Against Racism: Cumberland County, told CityView.
Members of the county’s OAR board will kick off the guided conversation on a handful of specific issues. Smiley said one board member will discuss disparities between expulsion and suspension rates for Black and white students in Cumberland County Schools. According to data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, CCS issued 5.5 times more short-term suspensions to Black students than it did white students in the 2023–24 school year.
Angela Tatum Malloy, founder and CEO of birth and lactation support organization Momma’s Village, will speak on maternal and child health disparities. In North Carolina, over 45% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2018 and 2019 were among Black pregnant people, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. Between 2019 and 2023, Cumberland County’s Black women were around 1.5 times more likely to give birth preterm, or before 37 weeks, than white women, according to data from the state’s Maternal and Infant Health Data Dashboard.
The county has tried to address maternal health disparities through solutions like funding doula services for the uninsured and the Cumberland County Department of Public Health’s Maternity Clinic, which provides low-risk prenatal care to all residents.
The final guided topic will be presented by members of Fayetteville Freedom for All, a local human rights organization. The organization will discuss their work in finding alternatives to police during mental health crises. It’s an issue that’s been flagged across the state—NC Health News reported that the state is launching a $20 million pilot program to replace law enforcement transportation of mental health patients involuntarily committed to a hospital’s behavioral health program with a to-be-determined private contractor.
Following the guided discussion, OAR members will break attendees into topic groups based on their interests. Those groups will work together to help develop strategies to resolve their given issue. Smiley said residents available in about a month, tentatively on March 29, will return to Crossroads Church to create an overarching strategic plan to address racism in the county.
“I think this is the first opportunity to see what are people thinking,” Smiley said. “How do they want to respond? What do they want to do, other than leave it up to our legislators, who don’t seem to be doing a damn thing.”
While the workshop will center on local issues, Smiley said it’d be unavoidable not to address the many actions taken by the Trump administration since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20. She specifically focused on President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the federal government and federally funded programs and contracts and the many university systems and companies pulling back their DEI initiatives as a result.
“Hopefully people are just as alarmed as I am and our organization is about how all the attempts to right the wrongs of the past are just going to be taken away,” Smiley said. “Where does that leave us as a country? Back before the Civil Rights Movement in the ‘60s?”
Whether residents are focused on national or local issues, Smiley is excited for an engaged and productive conversation. The county OAR has prepared pamphlets on how to have difficult conversations for residents to take home and continue speaking about the issues raised at the workshop.
“My hope is that people will walk away wanting to do more, wanting to be more engaged, willing to to be active and not let silence overtake this shift to anti-democracy,” Smiley said.
The workshop’s doors open and light refreshments begin at 8:30 a.m. More information about the event can be found on Organization Against Racism: Cumberland County’s website and Facebook page.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.
