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WHEELING -- The Ohio County Public Library’s next weekly Lunch With Books program will be part of a special presentation made possible through a partnership with the Heinz History Center.
The program, titled "Civic Empathy Through History," stems from the partnership that brings together a network of sites throughout the region, creating engaging experiences to build empathy and serve as the foundation for civic engagement by highlighting stories and artifacts that show how people have taken action to make positive impacts on their communities.
Through developing the skill of empathy, visitors will be empowered to see the ways that people have historically been involved in civic action and how they can be involved in the present.
The library's project features an address delivered over WWVA radio on Feb. 9, 1936, by Harry H. Jones, Wheeling's only African American lawyer at the time.
Titled, "Wheeling's 20th Man," the speech outlines the injustices of "Jim Crow" segregation and asks whites to have empathy for their Black neighbors. A related exhibit is being installed in the library’s main display area.
Tom DeWolf is an author, public speaker, trainer and workshop facilitator (tomdewolf.com), and since 2013 has served as executive director for Coming to the Table, a non-profit organization that provides leadership, resources, and a supportive environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal wounds from racism that is rooted in the United States' history (comingtothetable.org). He is also a white man.
Ron Scott Jr. is director of Cultural Diversity and Community Outreach at YWCA Wheeling, a father, an ordained minister, a hip-hop enthusiast, a superhero junkie, and a Black man.
The public is invited to join DeWolf and Scott as they come to the table to discuss civic empathy, the state of race relations in Wheeling and nationally, and how to create a more connected and truthful community and world from the starting point of Jones’s 1936 speech.
The program begins at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 27, at the library in downtown Wheeling.