CHICAGO, IL (June 20, 2014) — Though few would pick a progressive university town like Madison, Wisconsin, as a case study for racial disparity, the gap between the black and white residents of that city is reportedly among the most extreme in the nation. One of the key leaders in a grassroots effort to bridge the divide is Alex Gee, pastor of Madison’s Fountain of Life Covenant Church.
Yesterday PBS NewsHour aired an interview with Gee as part of its six-minute report on the burgeoning movement for change in Madison. “We are ground zero for so many issues [involving racial disparity], particularly those concerning African–American men,” Gee told PBS’s Hari Sreenivasan.
A national spotlight was turned on Madison following the publication of Gee’s 3,000-word op-ed “Justified Anger,” which appeared on the front page of The Cap Times newspaper last December. In the article, Gee called out his city for its failure to address its festering social injustices. The outpouring of support led Gee to start a Facebook group, to host a town hall meeting attended by more than 600 people, and to help form a citywide coalition to seek solutions. The April issue of The Covenant Companion also featured Gee as the subject of its cover story.
The PBS report featured footage from CovChurch.tv’s coverage of the “Justified Anger” town hall meeting that took place in February. You can find those video segments here.
