After the election of Donald Trump as president last November, Katie Anderson felt like a lot of women — shocked, appalled and afraid.
In her mind, she was seeing a profound divide in the country along racial, class and even generational lines.
“I felt for the first time in my life a threat to what I’d believed was American ideals and identity as a melting pot,” the 46-year-old mother of two said. “I didn’t want to be a part of that white racist identity coming from Trump and others in the Republican Party. It made me sick. It made me sad.”
But Anderson, an independent who votes Democratic, wasn’t just concerned about what the election meant for women. The 15-year resident of Newnan also worried about what it meant for her African-American friends.
Even though she has lived her entire life in as she said a “very red town, red county and red state,” she hardly ascribes to the sexism and racism that she believes were on display during and since the presidential election.
When she read a Facebook post in which one of her African-American friends expressed her pain, Anderson said she knew she had to do something.
She reached out to the woman and her husband and invited them over to talk about what they were feeling.
They agreed and a week or so later, over plates of cheese, fruit and cookies, they shared their deepest concerns with Anderson and her husband, Scott.
“My husband and I were shocked and mortified so many people had so much hate in their hearts,” she said. “Our black friends were not.”
Within months of their first meeting, the discussions grew to include upward of 100 people in their Facebook group of all races, ages, genders and religious affiliations. They started to call themselves South Atlanta Progress, a diverse group of concerned citizens seeking to encourage greater understanding between races.
After their meeting that night, they agreed to invite more to the table for “honest” talk about race and politics.
“A lot of the meetings were like venting sessions,” Anderson said.
But before long, they were joining protest marches, too, including the Women’s March on Washington held in January, a march for health care and science and against the NRA.
That was all fine and good, but for a few of its members like Clifton Fisher III, an 18-year-old Clark Atlanta freshman, and
Monique Bentley, a 20-year-old Atlanta Metropolitan State College sophomore from Union City, they had to do more.
"Marching can raise awareness, but marching isn't going to change policy, so it ultimately has no effect," said Fisher, who with Bentley heads the Coweta County African-American Alliance, the executive board of the African-American Heritage Museum, which opened in 2003 in Newnan.
At Fisher’s suggestion, South Atlanta Progress switched gears. They’d continue the race discussions, but they wanted to make community service a centerpiece of the organization.
And so earlier this month, a dozen or so of them gathered for the group’s first community service project on the grounds of the African-American Heritage Museum to spruce up the property that had become overrun with weeds and mounds of debris.
They aren’t done.
The nearly 6-acre lot includes a cemetery believed to be the oldest municipal slave cemetery in the South.
The needs are great, they say. There is no signage for the cemetery. There is no historical site designation. There is no fence. There is no protection.
“We would like to ensure its preservation and upkeep,” Anderson said.
South Atlanta Progress meets twice a month, once for a business meeting and another time for a “happy hour social” in Coweta. If you live in South Atlanta and are interested in joining them, send an email to southatlantaprogress@gmail.com.
Fisher was drawn to the group because he says that “the time for political correctness is far spent and honest conversations about race as well as action is needed now more than ever.”
“We live in a society that is very political correct,” he said. “Anything outside of that is demonized, but if we’re going to come to some kind of understanding, we need to leave emotions and opinionated rhetoric out of the conversation or history will continue to repeat itself. South Atlanta Progress is an interracial group, but our thoughts aren’t censured.”
Anderson believes the group represents the American ideal.
“We’re black, we’re white, we’re men, women, blue collar, white collar, atheist, Jews, Christians, all across the board and it makes me proud,” she said. “We may seem like an odd group, but this is America.”
Before the election, Anderson said, she always voted, but she could hardly be considered politically active.
“Now I know I will never sit back and be apathetic,” she said. “The lessons I’ve learned is get out of bed and be the change you want.”
Find Gracie on Facebook (www.facebook.com/graciestaplesajc/) and Twitter (@GStaples_AJC) or email her at gstaples@ajc.com.
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