“If we want to talk about race in America and we want to be frank, we are going to have to be uncomfortable.”

Dr. Olusoji Akomolafe of Norfolk State University spoke those words during a public program about race held on the afternoon of May 19 at the Mathews Boys & Girls Club. The program, “Learning from the Past and Shaping the Future: A Look at Racism and What We Can Do About It,” was presented by CircleUp Middle Peninsula, the start of a planned series of programs examining racism in America.

The program was divided into three parts, focusing on the past, present, and future, and much of the program highlighted inequities along racial lines.

“Learning took place anyway,” was how Dr. Wesley Wilson, Executive Director of the T.C. Walker and Woodville-Rosenwald School Foundation in Gloucester, characterized the history and challenges of African American education.

According to Wilson, Gloucester and Virginia were representative of most...