Tupelo Comes Together to Talk Racial Issues

By Chad Groening

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — Tupelo residents are coming together for another community conversation, following last month’s deadly officer-involved shooting.

Moderator Dr. Jandel Crutchfield moved to Tupelo from Baton Rouge about a year ago to teach social work at the University of Mississippi’s Tupelo campus.

She says she’s familiar with the problems in Baton Rouge, where she saw a lot of tension surrounding race and violence.

Crutchfield says no one tried to bring the community together to talk about their problems, but she’s optimistic Tupelo will be different.

“I think that it’s small enough to catch the fire before it burns everything down,” Crutchfield said. “So I think there are measures that are happening. I know lots of city officials are meeting, lots of community groups, church groups are meeting to try to tackle the issues that happen here, and I think that’s a benefit, that’s what needs to happen.”

Crutchfield says she wanted to teach folks different skills on how to approach racial questions, and how to be proactive in dealing with them.

Categories: Local News

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