[img]2843|right|Ms. Avis Ridley-Thomas||no_popup[/img]Re “As of Today, Avis Ridley-Thomas Leads Two ‘Days of Dialogue’”
As a family, the Ridley-Thomases of the near south side of Los Angeles can take their place with America’s most regal political households.
With a son and a husband holding high-profile elective offices, Avis Ridley-Thomas, the matriarch, often is reduced to third billing.
But her accomplishments are towering in the not-so-glamourous universe of communal mediation and communal peacemaking.
Facing boiling-over emotions in black communities hopscotching across the country following controversial police shootings in Los Angeles and Ferguson, it is time again this week for Ms. Ridley-Thomas to return to the ambitious task of communal calming.
Why It Started
Two decades ago, at the end of the stormy, divisive O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995, against the background of the memorable Million Man March on Washington, she founded the novel and enduring concept of “Days of Dialogue.”
She said a gentleman from All Saints Church, whose name became lost in the mists of time, coined the easy to remember phrase. “He said, ‘What we need is a day of dialogue,’” Ms. Ridley-Thomas said, and a brilliant concept was born. “I knew we could engage facilitators all over the region to help people engage in a day of dialogue on race relations,” she said.
Confronted with soaring racial tensions that were dividing Los Angeles into at least two camps, Ms. Ridley-Thomas found a talking-out way to soon defang tensions.
Inviting often-angry community members to talk about their feelings regarding the latest police shootings or cop relations with minority neighborhoods, Ms. Ridley-Thomas organized a team of trained mediators to bring about hopefully soothing solutions.
That is her challenge again this weekend in a doubleheader program – last night and tomorrow morning at Augustus Hawkins High School, 825 W. 60th St., Los Angeles 90044. (To participate, email thenewninth@gmail.com or call 213.473.7009.)
In the New 9th District of South Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price, Ms. Ridley-Thomas, who identifies herself as a facilitator, will apply her calming and resolving methods.
Has conducting Days of Dialogue become easier or more difficult over the years?
“It has become different,” she said. “My hope is that the answer becomes ‘better.’ We have now incorporated social media. We do surveys, and people can speak during the course of the dialogue.”
The Way It Works Best
But still the most effective way, said Ms. Ridley-Thomas, is few people at a small table exchanging dialogue while a mediator is posted nearby to assist.
What do you tell participants when they enter?
“We tell them this is a unique form of dialogue, and they can participate in a number of ways. First, we want to get their opinion on certain issues. We assure them that in the small groups they will have a chance to express their opinions. After people have had their say, we will have a chance to come back while our Themes and Ideas Committee rounds up the comments when we are together again for a dialogue session.
“They will have an opportunity to send comments to us on our email address, info@daysofdialogue.org.
“These are activists,” said Ms. Ridley-Thomas, “and their opinions are important to us, and there will be a report on our website (daysofdialogue.org).”
The main lesson she has learned the last two decades, she said, “is how constructive people feel the Days of Dialogue process is.”
