More than two dozen youth who are part of the Operation Understanding DC project made a pit stop in Indianola for lunch at the Blue Biscuit on Tuesday.
The group of Jewish and African-American high school students have been studying cultural race relations and the civil rights movement in stopovers in major cities throughout the country.
Executive Director Yolanda Savage-Narva said, “Understanding D.C. is a non profit organization whose mission is to promote understanding, respect and cooperation while fighting racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.”
She said they do that by building up a generation of leaders to help.
With over 550 alumni to date and 23 years of longevity, the program has had a noticeable impact. One of the graduates is Program Director Erica “Ricki” Horne, who said although it’s important that they visit the major cities “our history is everywhere,” adding that the Delta is unique.
Horne said they come here for the black history as well as the Jewish history to study its impact on Delta culture.
“We can’t over-simplify what happened in the past,’’ she said.
Mayor Steve Rosenthal welcomed the group to the city and delivered a brief history lesson on life in Indianola and the Delta. He called Indianola the center of the Delta but conceded that was not necessarily geographically accurate. He expounded on the 1986 boycott over the appointment of Robert Merritt as Indianola superintendent of education, the Freedom Riders and the White Citizens Council, among other things.
He commended the students for being “true friends” and completed his message by extolling on the positive changes that have been made in the Delta by people working and coming together.
