BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Diane Wray Williams was born in Ohio on January 23, 1938.  She grew up mostly in New York State, moving to Moorhead about thirty-five years ago.  Throughout her adult life, Ms. Williams has been a leading advocate of social justice issues.  To improve the community for all and to spread ideas about equality, she has served as a Minnesota State Representative, and currently serves on the Moorhead City Council.  Ms. Williams also co-organized, with fellow advocate Sandi Berlin, a group called the Justice Circle, which formed to respond to the U.S. Civil Rights Report that was issued following the 1998 incident in Moorhead’s Romkey Park.  Ms. Williams has held numerous other jobs including starting a preschool and serving as director of Creative Care for Reaching Independence (CCRI), a social service organization for people with disabilities.  As an elder in her church, Ms. Williams has worked hard to incite people of faith, and anyone else who is willing to listen, to make positive social changes in the community.  As a community member not originally from the Moorhead area, Ms. Williams has a unique outsider’s perspective and a keen sense of how people can work together to improve the community for minorities and other vulnerable people.  She is strongly committed to social justice causes, goes out of her way to help those in need, and always maintains a positive attitude.

In her interview, Diane Wray Williams gives us an overview of the Justice Circle, how it came into being and how it has evolved, as well as the role of religious institutions and politics in human rights issues in this area.

Ms. Williams was interviewed on April 22nd, 2004, by Amber Boyd, Sarah Beauregard, Truman Douglas and Brittany Daley.

SAMPLES FROM THE INTERVIEW

ON WHAT THE CIVIL RIGHTS REPORT TELLS US ABOUT THIS AREA:

"One of the statements in the report is so great that "Moorhead has an illusion of inclusion." Moorhead is full of good people okay... really good people. I would say, by and large, they are just good, well-meaning people. They have no idea how they exclude people of minority status, and there is an unconsciousness. If you know anything about racism in terms of it being an institutional thing....they're very.... that's what they look like. They look like people who say, 'Well, I'm not racist. I'm not prejudiced.' You know, and they think that's what solves it, whereas actually we live in a very racist society because it's all set up that way. People who are white are privileged. Nobody asks you... nobody follows you around the store. Nobody denies you renting an apartment. And it's all those things that a minority person is used to meeting day after day after day. So even if individuals don't think they're intolerant, or racist, we live in our own society of our own making where this is true. When people came forward that April evening and, you know, they had begun to see beyond the obvious. You know it was like peeling back the onion skin to see what really was there, and there were lots of people who came forward to the microphone and either told what had happened to them or said what they had learned in this group."

WHAT SHE WOULD TELL A NEWCOMER TO THIS AREA:

"Well, today I would say it's a place of possibilities. There are good people in the Midwest and give them a chance... give them a chance, because I think you could make a good life in the Midwest. There's good chances to make a good life. We still have relatively crime-free cities, which is a big deal for a refugee. I mean many are coming from unsafe life situations. If you can just walk the streets and feel safe... live in a house and feel safe.... that's important. And we still have that in the Midwest...at least a lot in the Midwest. And I would say give the people a chance. They may not know you yet, but they will give you a chance if you ask for it. And I think that's relatively true. I hope I've... you know I am an optimist (laughs)."

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW