Featured Panels
and Events
Panel 8: More than Just the Facts
Thursday, March 10, 2011
10:00-11:15, Conference C (Sam Rayburn Student Center)
Tim Dawson, Shannon Deep, and Adam Howard,
Program for a Deliberative Democracy, Carnegie Mellon University
More than Just the Facts: The Art of Developing Background Materials for Generative
Public Deliberation
Educational, background or briefing materials are a key element of most
models for public deliberation. As Lorraine Higgins, Elenore Long and Linda Flower (Community
Literacy, 2006) reveal, the process of developing these materials offers an important opportunity
for local rhetorical action. The panel discusses the range of interdisciplinary practices through
which the Program for Deliberative Democracy develops background materials for citizen
deliberations. A university-community partnership housed in the Philosophy department at
Carnegie Mellon University, the Program engages rhetoricians, theater artists, and designers to
develop its background materials. These artists in turn engage the expertise of local residents,
community leaders, elected officials, policy experts, and academics from across the academy in a
process of research and review that fosters relationships of trust and commitment while it
insures that the resulting background materials will be particularly meaningful and relevant to
the local residents who come together to deliberate.
Panelists:
Tim Dawson, the Program’s lead document developer will discuss the community‐based document‐
development process that proved central to bringing together residents from nine distinct and historically
segregated neighborhoods to determine goals for a shared community‐development plan.
Shannon Deep, a playwright and director, will discuss the process of developing Deliberative Theater, a
uniquely powerful means for humanizing complex issues and concisely representing the various ways that
beliefs, situated knowledge, and expert information can come together to inform people’s actions and
perspectives.
Adam Howard, the Program’s document designer, will discuss his process of “designing for democracy.”
http://hss.cmu.edu/pdd/index.html
Panel 23: Writing for (a) Change
Friday, March 11, 2011
10:00‐11:15, Sam Rayburn Student Center
Facilitator: Shannon Carter, with Jim Conrad, Texas A&M‐Commerce
Former Students: Allan Hallmark (Grants Pass, Oregon), MacArthur Evans (Tyler, Texas), and Larry
Mathis (Aurora, Colorado)
Citizens: Opal Pannell, Billy Reed, and Harry Turner (Commerce, Texas)
The Norris Community Club (established in 1973) provides us with a model for enacting significant local
change, especially through texts generated in true university‐community partnerships. A group founded by
long‐time residents of Commerce’s historically segregated neighborhood (the Norris Community) in
partnership with university students, NCC provided “a direct line of communication” between the city officials
and local African American citizens” (Billy Reed, NCC President).
At the time of the group’s formation, the needs of the Norris Community were many. Commerce had integrated
only a few years before (1964), and the Jim Crow laws and customs that limited city services and support for
local minority populations continued to choke progress and oppress its citizens residing in an area of town
generally referred to as “the hole”: unpaved streets, inadequate street lamps, sewage systems either inadequate
or non‐existent. The list continues. In a few short years, however, the Norris Community streets were well lit
and newly paved, sewage systems had been vastly improved, and Ivory Moore, a founding member of Norris
Community Club and leader on campus and in the community, had been elected Commerce’s first African
American mayor. He would go on to serve many terms on the Commerce City Council and bring in millions of
dollars in grant monies to improve the infrastructure in Norris Community and opportunities for minorities
and first‐generation students by establishing programs like Upward Bound, Trio Services, and other support.
Conditions and opportunities for minorities across the city continued to improve as a result of this productive
partnership, which included grant writing, press releases, promotional materials, consciousness raising events,
letter writing campaigns, and dozens of other local rhetorical actions to promote change.
Our panel brings together founding members from NCC, both former students and long‐time residents, to
discuss group’s origins, goals, and key accomplishments.
Panelists:
Shannon Carter and Jim Conrad will frame the conversation by foregrounding the ways in which the Norris
Community Club wrote for change in this particular context at this particular time. Carter’s current book
project investigates historical agency enacted through text use and production at local levels, especially
through community‐university partnerships. She has written extensively about NCC, and served as project lead
for a recent documentary on the subject. For the past two years, Carter has worked with Conrad to collect local
history associated with this project. Conrad is an archivist and historian who has been credited with building
the most significant repository of oral histories and other materials on Northeast Texas.
Allan Hallmark, Dr. Larry Mathis, and McArthur Evans will discuss their involvement with the Norris
Community Club as students. Hallmark came to Commerce in 1973 to join the graduate program in Journalism
after Vietnam and becoming heavily involved in anti‐war demonstrations elsewhere. Evans and Mathis arrived
in Commerce in the early 1970s as well, Evans by way of Chicago and Mathis by way of Colorado—both
majored in Criminal Justice. A few short years later, these former students left Commerce to take positions in
other parts of the country.
Opal Pannell and Billy Reed will discuss the shape and purpose of the Norris Community Club, as well as the
group’s impact over time. Harry Turner will describe the activist role of other, related and overlapping
institutions in the Norris Community, including the Norris School (the segregated school in Commerce) and Mt.
Moriah Temple Baptist Church (the oldest African American church in city).
Norris Community: Additional Events
Friday, March 11, 2011
10:00-11:15 Panel Discussion Conference Room, SRSC
5:15-7:00 Award Ceremony Traditions
Screening, Documentary (CLiC)
Saturday, March 12, 2011
4:00-? Open House Norris Community Center
Banquet Fellowship Hall, Mt. Moriah
Temple Baptist Church
Award Ceremony
Honoring Ivory Moore, a model for civic engagement through
university-community partnerships.
First African-American Administrator East Texas State University (now
Texas A&M-Commerce)
First African-American Mayor of Commerce, Texas
Secured millions of dollars in grants in support of Commerce’s citizens
and students
Established Upward Bound and Trio Services
Join us at our end-of-conference reception where we will honor Ivory
Moore with the Writing Democracy Award for University-Community Partnerships. Wine and light
refreshments will be served.
Screening, Documentary
Following Award Ceremony, we will screen CLiC’s first documentary, “The Other Side of the
Tracks,” a 25-minute journey into Commerce’s Norris Community with local leaders serving as
guide. Please see press release for more.
Open House and Banquet
Norris Community leadership invites everyone to an Open House at the Norris Community
Center followed by a “three-course meal” and presentation at the Fellowship Hall of Mt. Moriah.
Both events held in the Norris Community and open to the public.
