Austin Mayor’s Task Force Launches Racial Equity Nonprofit

AUSTIN, TX — Community leaders from across the region have collaborated on the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism & Systemic Inequities to form a new nonprofit association called the Central Texas Collective for Racial Equity, officials revealed Tuesday.

After the 2016 shooting death of David Joseph, a 17-year-old African American youth, community activists spoke out against police violence while demanding regional law enforcement reform. The teenager was running across the street without clothes while in the throes of mental distress before being shot by a former police officer.

Along with police reform, Austin Mayor Steve Adler sought a comprehensive approach to confront the legacy of racism as a critical predictor of disparities in health, quality of life, opportunity, education and access for generations, he said in an advisory.

Initially, Mayor Adler invited Huston-Tillotson University President, Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, and former Austin ISD Superintendent, Dr. Paul Cruz to co-chair the Task Force on Institutional Racism & Systemic Inequities to recommend strategies to dismantle systemic racism and inequities. In the years since, hundreds of people collaborated to identify and prioritize 278 recommendations in education, health and wellness, criminal and civil justice, real estate and housing, and finance and banking.

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One of the recommendations focused on the formation of the Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity, a nonprofit association created to continue the work beyond the initial set of identified strategies.

More recently, the horrific murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the shooting death of Mike Ramos in the South Austin at the hands of police have refocused attention on the legacy of institutional racism. Floyd died after an officer placed his knee on his neck for several minutes while Ramos was shot as he drove away from police after a brief confrontation outside an apartment complex.

Stemming from those events, the Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity is launching a virtual event celebrating and exploring community-based ideas to be implemented right here in Central Texas. Ideas include creating an Action Center for Educational Equity & Racial Justice and Center for Financial Empowerment, adopting a Health in All Policies approach, increasing affordable housing in high opportunity areas, and implementing comprehensive policing reform measures.

"Please join us for a joyful and engaging virtual event focused on ways we can continue to work together to build a peaceful, just, equitable, and thriving beloved community," officials wrote in an advisory. "As the quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. teaches us, 'Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.' "

Join the pre-launch event on Thursday at 11 a.m. for the online Interfaith Centering Moment bringing faith communities together to encourage growth, healing, and personal reflection as we move forward with the nonprofit association. Beginning at 11:30 a.m., Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity invites the community to Building Beloved Community Together: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow to share our mission to build more connected and courageous communities.

Speakers include Mayor Steve Adler, City of Austin; Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity board chair; Dr. Paul Cruz, Institutional Racism & Systemic Inequities Co-chair; Christopher Kennedy, Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity board officer; Dr. Amina Haji, Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity board officer; Brion Oaks, Chief Equity Officer, City of Austin; Dr. Kazique Prince, Interim Central Texas Collaborative for Racial Equity executive director, and Institutional Racism & Systemic Inequities Task Force Working Group Co-Chair(s). Kristie Gonzales, KVUE General Manager, and Ashton Cumberbatch, Equidad ATX Executive Director, will serve as the emcees for the event.

About the Central Texas Collective for Racial Equity

Central Texas Collective for Racial Equity was formed to facilitate the coordination, collaboration, and leveraging of ideas, strategies, tactics, and resources to manifest a collectively identified vision for eradicating institutional racism and pursuing racial equity, racial healing and transformation in the Central Texas region.