An event focused on communication, self-reflection, and hearing more than one narrative will feature Dr. Kesho Scott in Washington’s Central Park on Sunday. The event was approved by the Washington City Council on a vote of 4-2.

The event application says the talk regards how to be anti-racist and the true meaning of Black Lives Matter. Scott shares the goal of the program titled Peace Proclamation, “It is a peace memorial. It is an opportunity for people in their town to have a voice about the death of George Floyd and others in our country and in our state and in their cities. So, I am a guest being invited for a community group that has said they want to do this.” Dr. Scott, an Associate Professor of American Studies and Sociology, started with a memorial in Grinnell in June and has since held similar events in other Iowa towns that have invited her to speak.

The two council members who voted against the event were Steve Gault and Fran Stigers. Both said they do not support Black Lives Matter. Gault said problems come from the inner cities and should be dealt with there and Stigers said he doesn’t see racist issues locally, “This is Washington, Iowa. This is not Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is not Seattle, Washington. This is not Portland, Oregon. We don’t have them problems here, I don’t think. And I agree with Mr. Gault, all lives matter. I don’t care what color you are or what country you come from. And as far as I’m concerned, from what I see in the public and what I see on TV that the media feeds us, this is a domestic terrorist group.”

Councilors Millie Youngquist and Danielle Pettit-Majewski each said conversations need to be had, dialogues started, and people should hear other experiences with respect.

Dr. Scott told KCII News that in small towns differences have been met by opposition for generations, from socio-economic status to religion, citing one example, “Go back and study the history of our state and our country and Catholicism, and you’ll see a discrimination, and an exclusion, and harassment, and horrible names to people who were Catholic. And yet, most small towns have a Catholic church and a semi-Catholic after school program like in Grinnell, Iowa. And they have contributed to those small towns forever. So, the diversity before it was racial, was other things also. So, why wouldn’t we want to practice enriching diversity? So, it’s been a myth, basically is what I’m saying.” It’s a myth that discrimination doesn’t happen here.

The public event will be held in Central Park at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.