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Creating Change Focuses on Coalition Building
by Barbara Dozetos
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| Coretta Scot King addressed the opening plenary of the 2000 Creating Change conference in Atlanta, CA in early November. photo: Barb Dozetos |
The widow of one of the country’s leading civil rights figures called for a focus on coalition building as she welcomed the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 13th Annual Creating Change Conference in Atlanta during its opening event.
The conference opened with a session entitled “What Comes Next?” Coretta Scott King answered that question in her remarks welcoming the conference-goers to Atlanta. “What comes next must be an emphasis on coalition,” she said. “The whole of us united,” Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. told the overflow crowd, “makes us stronger than the sum of our parts.” In other words, she said, “One plus one equals three.” There are things that all minority communities can accomplish united, she said, that cannot be achieved if each group works separately. Mrs. King said the coalition that could be formed now amongst minorities could be as powerful as the New Deal coalition and effect as much change.
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Bari Shamas was one of several Vermonters who attended Creating Change. She presented a workshop about the process that led to the civil union law. photo: Barb Dozetos |
“All forms of bigotry and discrimination are wrong,” said Mrs. King, “and should be opposed by all right-thinking Americans.” Addressing the specific concerns of her audience, she continued, “Freedom from discrimination is a basic human right. We must make room at the table for everyone.”
Mrs. King’s remarks were met with a several standing ovations.
More than 2500 people were expected to attend the conference consisting of more than 190 plenary sessions, workshops, caucuses and special events over four days. “We will celebrate the advances we have made in recent years, reflect on our defeats and plan for a day when no one in our society faces discrimination because of sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity, age, religious belief or any other factor,” said NGLTF Executive Director Elizabeth Toledo. “Creating Change is about creating a just society.”