Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley invited community leader and activist Maxine Crump to speak to leaders within the department on the dialogue of race and theimportance of understanding race relations in our community.

Being the first conversation of its kind in the area for law enforcement, Crump focused on the views that America has moved away from seeing racism as operating through institutions and began to understand the problem as personal attitudes and individual acts of meanness. The purpose of the dialogue is to understand the issues around racism and to focus on the elimination of racism from our society.

Crump spoke to leaders about how issues such as diversity and equal rights are important in today’s society and to shed light on her non-profit organization, Dialogue on Race Louisiana.

“Thank you to my old friend (Maxine) for sharing not only her vision of a better community but also her personal story and insight. It is hoped that having meetings and discussions such as this addressing directly the importance of having dialogue on vital issues such as race relations that we can better understand each other,” said Sheriff Wiley.

Maxine Crump has over 25 years of dedicated service in radio and television broadcasting, working in news, public relations, and media development. She is a  founding member of the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, and is currently serving as CEO of Dialogue on Race Louisiana, and is owner of Success Communication.