Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Renée Price spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell on Wednesday, June 15th. This is a transcript of her discussion of the county’s new Equity Director, Juneteenth activities, and more. Listen to the full interview here.
Brighton McConnell: It is Wednesday and time to talk with Chair of the Orange County Commissioners, Renée Price, who joins us on the phone. Happy Wednesday Renee, how are you?
Renée Price: I’m feeling good. A little bit hot, but other than that, it’s a good day.
McConnell: Yeah, it’s been a good start to the week other than the hot weather. And boy, it seems like there’s a lot to catch up on when it comes to the county government. We’ve had several pieces of news trickle out in the last few days, including the hiring of the county’s first Chief Equity in Human Rights Officer. And I think that’s where I want to start with the county sharing this release Monday afternoon that Dr. Shameka Fairbanks is joining the ranks of county employees. What can you tell us about this position, Renee? And what can you tell us about Dr. Fairbanks?
Price: Well, I know very little about Dr. Fairbanks other than what’s in the press release, but we are looking forward to having her on board. I believe she starts at the end of the month. The commissioners had identified in a previous retreat that if we wanted to talk about equity, we really had to be focused on that and not have it as a subset of something else. I’m really excited about meeting her and seeing what she has to offer us.
McConnell: Yeah. I’m not too surprised to see this news and not too surprised to hear you say that this has been something that the county government has had on its radar for a while, especially when you look at some of the initiatives and projects that the county government has embarked on within recent years. Now there’s going to be somebody who’s going to tie all of that together, right?
Price: Yes. Tie it together and actually move forward on a plan. I think we’re consistently talking about equity with regards to health, schools, our education, our jobs and whatnot. So it’s time that we really have a robust plan to move things forward from the thinking, the ideology, and the discussion. I will say that we have made some progress. Yet we need to really move forward. Our schools have equity officers, different departments even in state government, or even businesses and so forth have equity officers. So, it is time for us to have our own officer and work towards a plan and see some results.
McConnell: Yeah. In the last few weeks or so, especially around the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, we’ve been having a lot of interesting conversations and reading interesting coverage about how a lot of places started very heavily into equity projects or task forces or research projects to study racial equity and diversity in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s deaths. And then two years later, some of them are not seeing the same sort of traction. I know at least for the Orange County part, a lot of these initiatives were kind of in the works before those national conversations started happening. But in your mind, Renee, how important is it that Orange County is able to set an example for continuing to focus on racial equity, even when we don’t have the same national conversation driving it as we did two years ago?
Price: Well, from my perspective, it’s always an issue, something that we need to talk about. The fact that we often have to wait and rely on a horrific incident to happen in order to remind ourselves of what we’re dealing with in America is quite unfortunate. But then again, if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. We have this because a young woman was able to record it. We saw it in action, the murder of George Floyd, and we heard about Breonna Taylor. But it’s similar to back in the day, back in the 1960s, when the television cameras started rolling and we saw the dogs and the billy sticks with the barbed wire and the fire hoses on young, Black teenagers and other people. When we saw that happening in Alabama, the world woke up.
And again, George Floyd, there was a camera and the world woke up. I hate to see that we get into action only when a horrific incident happens, but unfortunately, that’s what does occur. So if we can continue to have these conversations maybe we can avoid some of these events and save some lives, as opposed to having to wait for a sacrifice before we move into action. So hopefully we can begin to normalize conversations, build bridges and move forward in a collaborative way and realize that we’re one Orange, and hopefully what we do here will have an impact in other places, just as what they do in other places may have an impact here. And if we’re going to all move forward together, then maybe we can really get along and be good neighbors and friends and family.
McConnell: There’s going to be a special court session on Friday to help move forward and I know that you have been a big component in organizing the ceremony that we’re going to see. We’ve talked a little bit about it before, but can you preview for our listeners what will happen? And again, kina why hold this now?
Price: Well as I said once before, I had brought this to the attention of the commissioners when we were celebrating the Freedom Rides last year. And when I wrote the resolution, it dawned on me that the Freedom Rides of the sixties were based on the journey of reconciliation in 1947. And I realized that these four men had been arrested and convicted and served time on a chain gang and it was left at that. And so I contacted Judge Allen Baddour and asked him what we could do about it. I didn’t know what would be possible but I just kind of put it on his plate. I’m so thankful that he did his research and came up with a solution. And so he will be dismissing the charges on Friday.
And as part of that, when Sheriff Blackwood opens the court session everything that we say will be part of the court records. So we will begin, you know with opening the court with Judge Baddour speaking, and then Dr. Fred Parker will set the context for us of what was going on in the 1940s. And then we will hear from Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger because the arrest happened in Chapel Hill. Now these will be short remarks. Freddie Parker will give us spend a little more time setting the context, but then the rest will be just giving brief remarks. I’m not sure exactly all who will be here, but we hope to hear from some of the friends and relatives and friends of the four men who were arrested.
McConnell: Yeah, it sounds like it’s going to be a very exciting event across the board. And to go back to the points you were making just a few minutes ago, we know that based on all of the conversations we’ve been having within the community when it comes to diversity, racial equity, and justice, it’s not just focusing on what we can do right now and what we can do moving forward, but also reckoning with that tough history that we have here in Orange County and in North Carolina when it comes to our past in racial injustice. And it seems like this is one of those steps where it is reckoning with that, addressing it, and finding, as you said earlier, ways to move forward.
Price: Exactly. And if there’s things that are still lingering in the past that were wrong and or could be misconstrued by later generations, we have to set the record straight. Then we can move forward.
McConnell: Once again, OrangeCountyNC.gov, the county government website, has some more details about that special court session. That’s going to be this Friday at the historic Orange County courthouse in Hillsborough if you want to go check out some more of that. We have a few minutes remaining with Chair of the Orange County Commissioners, Renee Price. We also have Juneteenth coming up on Sunday. First, is it the first or second year it’s been recognized as a federal holiday? That means there’s going to be some closures at the county government level, Renee, but also tons of events happening throughout the community. I believe that you’re helping organize. Do you want to give a plug for that real quick?
Price: Well, first of all, the court session is actually kind of our introduction into Juneteenth, we specifically chose that day. Then on Saturday, we’ll have something called “say their names” where we’ll talk about an art exhibit that Don Young, Mike Ogle, Fred Joiner and I worked on last year and the Orange County museum has asked us to talk about it again this year. It will be held at the Hillsborough Presbyterian Church. And we also will be recognizing Mrs. Dorothy Shanklin who’s been a real trooper over the years, as well as Reverend William Richardson on Sunday. I know that there are some events at Hargrave Center that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and other groups are having. And then on Monday, back in Hillsborough a walk, “walking in our liberation,” is being planned by the Northern Orange NAACP. And I would just say check Facebook for further updates. My understanding is it should be starting at 10 o’clock in the morning at the Margaret Lane Cemetery, then walking downtown.
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