Clark King speaks at Civic Center

By Kirsti Marohn • kmarohn@stcloudtimes.com • October 24, 2008


Buzz up! Had Reatha Clark King tried to give the same speech she gave in St. Cloud on Thursday in her segregated rural Georgia hometown during the first two decades of her life, it probably would have ended badly.


Someone would have reported the gathering to the authorities, the 70-year-old Clark King told the audience at the Civic Center.

“We would all be suspects then, or troublemakers, and perhaps the steering committee would have been taken to jail because they were the instigators of the trouble,” Clark King said. “We all would have been accused of breaking the law.”

The former General Mills Foundation president said she was encouraged to be speaking to the racially diverse audience as part of Create CommUNITY’s third annual “Continuing Conversations on Race.” This year’s forum focused on economic opportunities.

Clark King is senior adviser of the Council of Foundations and a board member of Lenox Group Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. She was president of Metropolitan State University in St. Paul for 11 years and has a doctorate in thermochemistry.

Clark King urged the community to consider how people will be affected by the housing and financial crisis, whose ripple effects aren’t yet known.

“We are having some jolts, and we’re going to have some more jolts, but we need a plan to deal with the aftermath of these jolts as soon as possible,” she said.

The economic issues are global and national, but also affect people locally, Clark King said.

“We must understand that we must prepare for changing times, and ask the question — ‘Which communities can weather the storm?’ ” she said.

The answer is those with “the right culture, standards and discipline,” she said, and cited Create CommUNITY’s anti-racism efforts as “the right initiative for the right time.”

It’s impossible for companies, universities, churches and other organizations to isolate themselves from issues in the community, Clark King said, because those organizations get their people from community, she said.

“The issues that people experience in the community, whether it’s racism or prejudice, they’re prone to bring those issues into the organization ... so economies, employees and their people are intertwined,” Clark King said.

Corporations, churches, schools and other organizations should continue diversity programs and work to eliminate racism even in tough economic times, Clark King said. She urged the audience not to accept the excuse that “we can’t make progress on eliminating racism and prejudice because we don’t have the money in our budgets.

“There are a lot of things we can do that don’t require lots of money,” Clark King said.