Utah can help bridge the race divide, conservative civil rights activist says
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- Reps from the Washington, D.C.-based Woodson Center, Path Forward Utah and other organizations focused on aiding minority groups met Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in the Ogden offices of Path Forward Utah.
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- Robert Woodson, founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Woodson Center, participates in a roundtable discussion with Utah leaders on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City.
OGDEN — Conservative civil rights activist Robert Woodson, who spoke in Ogden last April, thinks Utah can have a role in bridging the simmering divide on race issues in the United States.
“I would like to see Utah lead the nation away from the dark vision of the future,” he said.
Woodson, founder of the Washington, D.C.-based Woodson Center, espouses a “message of unity” in dealing with thorny race questions and shies from the notion that Blacks are lingering “victims” of the legacy of slavery and that whites are “villains.” He brought his message to Weber State University on April 11 and returned to the state, meeting on Wednesday and Thursday in Salt Lake City with Senate President Stuart Adams, Gov. Spencer Cox and other lawmakers and educators.
On his return Friday to Washington, D.C., Woodson, who is Black, spoke by phone with the Standard-Examiner.
“I think people are hungry for a solutions-oriented approach,” he said. Utah, he went on, can potentially help the nation “set another agenda” in dealing with race issues, helping promote an approach that steers clear of promoting divisive discourse among the players in the issue.
Earlier Friday, a top rep from the Woodson Center, Will Crossley, met in Ogden with a contingent of Utah grassroots leaders who work with people of color and minority communities.
Crossley said the Woodson Center typically works with local organizations in addressing issues like neighborhood crime and violence, drug abuse and low educational attainment levels. “We work with local groups that do that work,” he said, and the trip to Utah is a bid to explore possibilities to team up with organizations here.
Among those at Friday’s meeting in Ogden was Jamie Renda, founder of Path Forward Utah, which espouses a conservative approach in empowering minority communities. The gathering was held at the Ogden office of Renda’s group, which helped organize Woodson’s return trip this week to Utah.
“We have to do more. We have to connect. We can’t let the media control the narrative” and allow the notion that conservatives are racist to gain traction, she said. Moreover, she added, those across the political spectrum working to address the issues and problems that impact minority communities need to focus on their commonalities, not their differences.
Utah Sen. John Johnson, a North Ogden Republican, also took part. “We need to look forward and look at healing our nation and bringing hope,” he said.