Echo Press Article

Warren C. Bowles delivered a chilling performance as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Mixed Blood Theatre production, Dr. King’s Dream, at Alexandria Technical and Community College on Tuesday night.

A room full of pale faces stared at a lone black man. Not uncommon in the 1950s and not uncommon in Alexandria today. Over the course of one hour, that one man took the audience on a journey through Dr. King’s last moments on earth.

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Echo Press Article

In 2012, DRAA changed its name to the Inclusion Network (IN). It is the IN’s belief that Alexandria has an ethical, economic and legal responsibility to become a more inclusive community. The IN views the road to an inclusive community as a natural and healthy path of progress.

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Echo Press Article

Steve Pederson of Alexandria has been named the 2012 Facing Race ambassador for Greater Minnesota by the St. Paul Foundation’s Facing Race initiative.

As part of its ongoing effort to create a more equitable, just and open community, the foundation’s anti-racism initiative created the award to recognize people in the region who are committed to building a community which everyone feels safe, valued and respected.

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Success is hard to measure in this business. Things are better. Compared to the last 30 years that I’ve known Central Minnesota, we have made more progress in the last 5-10 years than in the past. It’s still a tough thing, though, and the more you learn, the more you learn you don’t know.

Steve Pederson

Steve Pederson is a lifelong central Minnesotan who lives and works on his farm, 20 miles southwest of Alexandria, across the street from where he has lived all but one of his 43 years.

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Steve Pederson has a mission: to make Central Minnesota a more welcoming and inclusive place to raise his children.  He is a long-time advocate for racial sensitivity and racial equity but these goals were heightened when he and his wife adopted their first child, an African American girl.  Now the proud parents of two children, their mission is ever more important.

“A few key life experiences molded Pederson’s racial sensitivity and have made him uniquely qualified to educate and transform his community. Pederson says he first witnessed racism while in elementary school. In his overwhelmingly white rural school, Pederson witnessed the mistreatment of a small group of students of color. Pederson knew these children and was alarmed to see them bullied and treated as the “other,” or “less than” because of the color of their skin" (2012 Facing Race Ambassador Award).

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