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Friend, One afternoon in May, Isabella Dennison and Madison Thompson received a message from the manager of the Civil Rights Memorial Center (CRMC), Lauren Blanding. Could they join her for dinner that evening? The guests included staffers from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which built and sponsors the CRMC at its Montgomery, Alabama, headquarters. The two seniors at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School in Montgomery were happy to oblige. When they arrived at the downtown restaurant, however, they were surprised to find that they had been invited to do more than enjoy a meal. “When we got there, we realized that we were the speakers,” Dennison recalled with a laugh. The two students are members of the Youth Leadership Institute, a program created by the CRMC and funded by the Gilead Foundation, and focused on education, health equity and leadership. “We wanted to find a way to connect with the younger generation,” Blanding said. “To give young people an opportunity to speak out and stand up with the Southern Poverty Law Center on racial and social justice issues but also to talk about what’s going on in their schools and communities when it comes to justice, education and health equity.” Since joining the program last year, Dennison and Thompson have tackled topics such as mental health, community-building and finding one’s purpose in life.
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