In 2020, after the murder of Houston-native George Floyd, a local group became inspired to work to improve race relations and quality of life in Southeast Texas. Composed of voluntary members from the Rotary Club of Beaumont, the Rotary Club of Port Arthur and 100 Black Men of Greater Beaumont, they call themselves Unity for Success.
John Lee, founder of Unity for Success, said the idea for an organization that could serve in this way first sparked in his mind when he attended a meeting in 2020 at Lamar University on race relations after Floyd’s death.
“It had a lot of the prominent Black leaders in the community that all spoke very eloquently about how they felt and what was going on,” Lee said. “ John Eugene is president of the 100 Black Men of Greater Beaumont, and I reached out to him afterwards and said, ‘You know, that was great, and I really appreciated it. But, you know, if we don’t have both white and black in the room, nothing’s going to get solved.’”
As a member of the Beaumont Rotary Club, Lee said he felt a special call to involve other members of his organization because one of the tenets of the rotary club’s Four-Way Test: “Is it fair to all concerned?” It also was the perfect reason for Johnny Brown, a member of 100 Black Men and former president of the Port Arthur Rotary Club, to bring in some of his own rotary friends for this new group.
Listening to what the Black leaders said about their experiences in Southeast Texas convinced Lee, who is white, of the need for biracial cooperation to ensure that life in this area is, indeed, fair to all. But Lee made sure to note he doesn’t speak for the entire Beaumont Rotary Club.
The pandemic presented an obstacle to the burgeoning organization, but UFS members began meeting on Zoom on in mid-October last year — first to get to know each other and in later meetings to strategize how to reach out to their community. It wasn’t until over a year later, however, that they could do something with all their ideas.
On October 23, the group joined with Sleep In Heavenly Peace, a Beaumont organization that builds beds for children who are sleeping on the floor. Unity For Success delivered beds to 45 low-income children in Port Arthur, Beaumont, Groves, Orange County and other areas.
“Our Beaumont Rotary group has been working with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace group for a while, and so we felt like that was a good place to get started,” Lee said.
Other initiatives UFS is looking into are mentoring youth, putting together a college scholarship program, and holding an art contest for middle schoolers inspired by Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb.” These sorts of projects are intended to help ameliorate local racial disparities.
Lee is an advisor to the Small Business Development Center in Beaumont and although many strides have been taken in the city, he has an up-close view of ways there is still room for progress.
“I deal with a lot of people trying to start businesses,” he said. “In a lot of ways it’s harder for a minority to be able to get funding. Some of that is probably racial in nature, even though none of the banks would admit it. Some of that is because a lot of times their credit is not where it should be. That also is because of lack of financial education. People have got to be able to get the opportunity for that. There’s still a difference in the access to opportunity.”
As the group moves forward, they are hoping to integrate successful models seen in other communities to improve relations in Southeast Texas. A Rotary Club in Fort Collins, Colorado, is taking the Four-Way Test to youth by providing a problem-solving exercise in public schools that can help students think through how to respond to issues that affect multiple communities. The hope is this will create real progress in the region.
The process of working on this together, however, alone is a measure of real progress.
“Not only can people from different backgrounds and races and neighborhoods work together, but we should think that we should work together,” Brown said. “And so in accomplishing a common goal, these good things happen and it’s better for all concerned.”
“I think we have developed what are going to be some lifelong friendships,” Lee added. “I think that is probably the best way to break down barriers.”
rachel.kersey@beaumontenterprise.com
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