Thanks to the late Ms. Wilma Jean Tucker for having created the Oakland California open forum setting. Because of her, we were able to process some of the public’s feelings, both the hurt and heartfulness connected to racial issues in the United States. This forum occurred just before the “Rodney King Trial”, 1992. Mr King had been unfairly beaten by police, in a widely publicized video, sent by TV around the world at that time. A few days before the trial,  the public atmosphere in Oakland California, was highly charge just as other largely African American cities were around the US. For some amazing reason, Oakland was one of the few places which did not break out into riots after that trial.

We hope that the large open forum gathering and people’s ability to express and deeply relate to one another, may have contributed to the possible outer lack of riots. Our hope is that learning to process large open public forums on difficult, historical topics, may contribute to a better world for everyone. See the attached link San Francisco Chronicle article by Mr Don Lattin who reported on that forum. (because the newspaper article was difficult to scan, the text is reproduced from the original. Click here to see the article.

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