9 Proven Strategies for Breaking Through to Common Ground
In the summer of 2016, I sat strategizing with a small group of Black ministers about how to find a common ground breakthrough between police and the Black community in York, PA.
Our local community, less than an hour north of Baltimore, MD, was boiling over with agitation over the deaths of Black men at the hands of police, young men like 25-year old Freddie Gray of Baltimore.
As leaders in our community, we were keenly aware that our city was on the brink of potential riots if even one police interaction went wrong.
Our little city of York, PA, has a history of violent riots dating to 1969. That year was violent and deadly as a young Black woman, Lillie Belle Allen, was shot by white men as she drove with her family. A white police officer, Henry Schaad, was killed in an armored truck by a Black sniper that same year.
York was boiling over with antagonism and rage, much like most of America in 2021.
