The Fort Wayne Urban League announced a partnership with the Race Card Project to kick off Black History Month, inviting community members to share the story of their race.
The Race Card Project was created by journalist Michele Norris in 2010 to encourage people to distill their thoughts on the word race to only six words.
The Fort Wayne Urban League is inviting members of the community to do the same, by filling out a six word “race card” at one of several locations around the city.
President of the Urban League Aisha Arrington said we can’t begin to move forward until we are all able to share the truth of our experiences.
“Everyone has a race story," she said. "Everyone’s story matters and it’s a part of their truth.”
At the event announcing the partnership, several leaders from various positions around the city read their own six-word race story for the attending crowd.
“I think it speaks to just how great Fort Wayne is, a community that we all call home," Arrington said. "Now, that’s not saying that there isn’t work to do, but, gosh, it certainly sends the message that there’s hope.”
The Urban League is working with the Allen County Public Library and the YMCA of Greater Fort Wayne to create six physical sites where people can fill out the race cards; The Pontiac, Georgetown and Little Turtle branches of the ACPL and the central, Jackson R. Lehman and Renaissance Point branches of the YMCA.
The Urban League is also offering the option to fill out a race card digitally on their website.
The project runs until the end of February.
