More Sample Works

The moderator was Melissa Morgan, a Sankofa Parent Village mother and President Morgan-Barnes’s Mom. She helped guide the conversation and offered attendees the chance to participate in the discussion. “When we talk about melanin, we don’t really talk a lot about its biological effects,” Morgan said, “because instead, in this country, in particular, we’re socialized to talk about race and color through a social lens and spectrum, really based on our history of racism and prejudice.”

Morgan hopes to see police responding to a significantly reduced number of calls for service, to see support from the police, and for the city to truly embrace community voices in informing how to care for one another, she said. “The source, the root of policing, is very destructive,” Morgan said. “Anytime you can bring community together to care for one another, wonderful things can happen there.”

Melissa Morgan, a communications director for Long Beach Forward, which is a part of a coalition of community groups that issue the “People’s Budget” every year, said that community members are distrustful of the city over previous failed attempts to have their voices heard, and the proof that the city is listening will lie in how it incorporates community input this time around. “Progress really takes a long time when we’re talking about social justice issues,” Morgan said, adding that the victories the coalition didn’t see in last year’s budget will fuel how it compiles its demands this year.

“When everyday people come together and realize that they have power and voice to inform the budget process — that’s been the key to the successes in the past,” said Melissa Morgan, communications director of LB Forward, an organization supporting the People’s Budget movement.

Melissa Morgan, communication director for Long Beach Forward—which is a member of the Housing Justice Coalition—said the item was “watered down” and wouldn’t protect working families who were currently facing evictions. “Many are frontline workers. You have been calling them heroes,” she said. “Let’s give them heroic treatment.” 

“There are too many stories of black families in Long Beach who have been victims of police brutality, harassment and disrespect,” said Melissa Morgan, city’s former human dignity officer. “Their voices aren’t heard widely.” Morgan is one of multiple Long Beach black leaders who gave interviews to the Press-Telegram this week amid the ongoing protests. And they generally agreed that while the famously progressive city has made improvements in race relations, to varying degrees, much more work needs to be done. And that includes talking to one another about the issues the city’s diverse communities face, in particular, the black community.

“It’s incredibly clear that things have not improved, and have gotten worse, with police/community relations in Long Beach and in our neighboring communities,” she said, “particularly when it comes to how police interact with the poor, with blacks, with people with mental illness and with our youth. “All of these issues are connected to bias and prejudice,” Morgan added. The solution, according to Morgan? “We need to all be willing to have uncomfortable, open, honest conversations with ourselves, our neighbors and our institutional leaders to repair all the harm that has been done to build a stronger Long Beach,” she said. “We need to learn to talk about race and address our challenged community.”

Communication is key to understanding one another, Morgan said. “This is a time for people to sit down and talk about how they feel about race and what their differences are and (about) their challenges,” she said. “We should continue to celebrate these types of months and continue to have dialogue about race and racism.”

City Manager Gerald R. Miller announced Melissa Morgan will be the Human Dignity officer for the city of Long Beach. Morgan will be responsible for the implementation of the city’s Human Dignity program, promotion of cultural awareness, hate crime education and administration of the city’s Hate Crime Response Team. She will also serve as the lead staff person to the city’s Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force.

The students in the Dream Dialogue program previously have participated in other ADL youth programs, which often include trips in the U.S. and abroad to further their education about cultural diversity. For “Faces of LA,” the students worked for a year and traveled to many places that they had never visited, says Melissa Morgan, assistant project director for A World of Difference Institute.