The office is the second of several planned by the SPLC to be grounded
in that collaborative model.
Working With the People: Community engagement defines SPLC's new
Alabama state office director
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Esther Schrader | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
When a series of devastating tornadoes hit Alabama last month, Tafeni
English-Relf had been director of the Southern Poverty Law
Center's new state office for just five weeks. With space not
yet chosen for the new operation, she was still shuttling between her
former digs at SPLC headquarters and her home.
But English-Relf is not the type who waits for office furniture to
arrive before getting to work. Less than 12 hours after the twisters
hit central Alabama, she was in Selma, the flashpoint of the civil
rights movement. Wending her way through live wires, past collapsed
buildings, overturned cars and metal roofing wrapped around telephone
poles by violent winds, she said her heart was heavy and her thoughts
were racing with the urgency of need in a city she loves.
Three days later, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, English-Relf was back
in Selma with a plan. She brought two other SPLC senior leaders, 400
bottles of water and a list of action items for the SPLC: to allocate
thousands of dollars to aid efforts, provide free legal services and
set up mobile mental health clinics for displaced residents. She would
also organize donations and take them weekly to Selma and other areas
of the state where the tornadoes caused horrific loss of life and
property.
"Immediately, I thought about the (Hurricane) Katrina
catastrophe and how long a recovery that has been. I thought, we
won't wait for help," English-Relf said. "We are
going to be stepping up in Selma early and quick. We are going to be
there to provide to the community and residents. Aside from addressing
the needs for toiletries and food and water, the necessities that they
need right now, we are also really going to be working to add to their
resilience. Because the people are very hopeful that this will be an
opportunity to get it right for Selma, and for Alabama."
A collaborative model
Getting it right for Alabama. That may be the best possible
distillation of English-Relf's goals for the SPLC's
Alabama state office.
The SPLC is not a relief organization. The federal and state
governments and the American Red Cross, along with other large-scale
disaster response organizations, will be the major players in managing
the immediate needs of the regions devastated by the storms.
The SPLC's Alabama state office is designed to bring a different
sort of relief to places like Selma. Employing a collaborative model
that the storied 52-year-old racial justice organization
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has been developing over the past several years, the office under
English-Relf's leadership will partner with established local
advocacy and community organizations to get it right for Alabama over
the long term.
The office is the second of several planned by the SPLC to be grounded
in that collaborative model. The first SPLC state office opened in
Mississippi in May 2022 and has become a launching pad for training
grassroots advocates, partnering with community organizations and
confronting a variety of struggles facing the state, including the
water crisis in Jackson that is steeped in systemic racism.
READ MORE
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.
Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
justice and equity in courts and combat white supremacy?
DONATE
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