Southern Indiana Business July-August 2020 | Page 18

Photo by Brooke McAfee MARCIA BOOKER New Albany resident Marcia Booker has been an activist and community leader in Southern Indiana for years. She was one of the leaders of a 2010 protest around the New Albany City-County Building after a New Albany police officer’s allegedly racist comments on civil rights, and in 2013, she led a small group of people in a demonstration near the New Albany- Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. building after a group of Highland Hills Middle School students wore gorilla costumes and President Barack Obama masks to a basketball game. She continues to advocate for racial equality as people across the country protest police violence and call for justice. As people across the nation speak up against racial injustice and inequality, what is your vision for creating positive change within the Southern Indiana community? “My vision is that we need to sit down with one another and discuss racial equality. This is not discussed because people want to avoid it….When you see the inequality of treatment of black people, you want that to end — trust me for who I am, and don’t judge me for the color of my skin. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, judge me for the content [of my character]. “We need to make sure we vote to put people in that have the mindset that everyone is equal, and not give money where the rich people are, but where the people are....If we don’t bring funding into [black communities], then how can we make an improvement? Within the school systems, we need to have more black teachers so children can be exposed and look and say, ‘I can achieve — I can be a principal or a teacher.’” “My vision is that we need to sit down with one another and discuss racial equality. This is not discussed because people want to avoid it.” — Marcia Booker 18 July / August 2020