The 2018 Call to Conscience Award went to UA Professor Ellen G. Spears, author of “Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town.” Spears said she received a first-hand education from civil rights leaders, many of whom were from Alabama and became an environmental researcher to bring an end to the disproportionate amount of toxic waste being dumped in minority communities. “Democracy is under serious threat at the moment. We need to prepare a generation of young people to renew democracy and to take the kinds of things they are learning — things they are studying and reading — out into the world,” Spears said. “We need to prepare students to make a better world, to learn the critical thinking skills to analyze the situation and to then make their own choices about the path forward.”
Realizing the Dream Awards are presented annually by the University of Alabama Division of Community Affairs.
Cinematography by Preston Sullivan.