Louisville recieves grant to redress racial legacy

Fortunately, the W.K Kellogg Foundation is playing a part, along with many other organizations on a local and national level, in providing the city with the societal progress needed to eliminate those legacies that linger from the past, the legacy of the slave trade, of the civil rights movement and the violence and backward tendencies that accompanied them.

The W.K Kellogg foundation has provided the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness with a $400,000 grant aimed at eradicating racism that lingers in the city. Racial divisions have long-been a part of the city’s history.

Louisville was once one of the greatest slave trade partners in the South. During the 18^th and 19^th centuries millions of slaves were brought to America through the port of Louisville, because of this, the city remains one of the most multi-cultural, with black residents representing around 30% of the population.

Unfortunately, the low-income and economically disadvantaged sectors of the population of Louisville are disproportionately represented by African Americans and this is something that the grant will address as well, for the disparity is not down to any biological difference between whites and blacks, but because of the influence of environmental factors, which essentially create a situation whereby dual societies exist in the same city.

One of the projects that will be set up using the grant money is a two year leadership and team-building course whereby young African Americans and Caucasians are brought together to examine the history of the city’s civil rights and human rights movements, which it is hoped will play some part in bridging the gap that still exists between many white and black communities in Louisville.

According to Louisville news media, the grant will be administered by the Center for Health Equity, a unit of the health department established four years ago with the aim of redressing the contrasting health facilities that exist for African American communities compared to those for whites.

Metro Health Director Dr. Adewale Troutman said that the grant would provide “more tools to address structural inequities” that contribute to cyclical patterns of disadvantage and socio-economic exclusion.

Racism remains rampant across the United States and indeed the world. Infamous legacies such as America’s slave trade are shared with other nations, South Africa’s Apartheid, Britain’s colonial projects, Australia’s near-decimation of indigenous communities and Germany’s holocaust.