NAUDL Annual Report 2020-FINAL (WEB UPDATES)

Fostering the Bonds of Communication
In 2019, Executive Director Rhonda Haynes
launched a monthly blog series called
“Perspective,” providing relevant reflections on
the debate community and its intersection with
societal and cultural issues.
Topics ranged from the nostalgia of back-to-school and academic heroes to “power
revealed” for the good of the next generation.
One of the more noteworthy posts was a reflection on Urban Debate and the Civil
Rights Movement. This special piece centered around an unforgettable immersion trip
made by NAUDL staff, board members and alumni last June to Montgomery, Alabama –
home of the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum and Memorial. Here is an excerpt:
We covered the spectrum, from
Generation Z and Millennials to Gen
X-ers and Boomers. Our life experiences,
ethnicity and backgrounds varied, but
we all expressed one mutual interest:
connecting and growing from our
shared time in Montgomery.
Together, we realized that objective and so much more. We found the gift of
understanding as we confronted Montgomery’s prominent role in the trafficking of
enslaved people, our nation’s heartless acts of racial terrorism, and a new perspective on
the critical role of advocacy for socially just policies and practices.
We also found understanding in our own personal stories. We demonstrated that
people can have different opinions, political viewpoints, and generational ideals, while
respectfully engaging in open dialogue around highly-complex and pervasive issues.
This was a life-changing experience for all who shared it — and a catalyst to refocus
equity at the heart of NAUDL’s work.
Though we can’t always travel to Montgomery or storied places like it, our pledge is to
facilitate experiences and important discourse in the months ahead – particularly in this
monumental time of both change and unrest for our country, bringing together the
debate, civic and philanthropic communities in a collective way.
NAUDL
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