Featuring a two-day conference to consider and discuss
Thirty Years After Oak Park:
Ferguson Then and Now
Friday, 18 October 2024, 1:00 – 5:00
Saturday, 19 October 2024, 8:00 – 5:00
Florissant Valley Community College
3400 Pershall Road, Ferguson, MO 63135
In October 2024, we will recognize the thirtieth anniversary of Ferguson’s Oak Park Conference. PROUD will host a two-day conference to consider the ways that Ferguson has changed over the past thirty years. We will consider the initiatives generated by the original Oak Park Conference and evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and what should be done next.
Oak Park Committee:
Michele Wright, Event Coordinator
Chuck Henson, Co-Chair
Gerry Noll, Co-Chair
Dr. Cassandra Butler
Jeff Finnegan
Lindsay LaMarche
Dr. Jackie Lewis-Harris
Alan Mueller
Michael Pierce
Rebecca Clendenen, SSN Advisor
Our Partners:
History of Oak Park Conference
By 1994 it was apparent that the City of Ferguson was experiencing demographic changes that were leading to white flight. In response, the City made a conscious effort to ease the transition to greater racial diversity. Community leaders hosted the Oak Park Exchange Congress at Florissant Valley Community College to consider proposals for stabilizing the city. The meeting took place in October of 1994.
Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, had hosted 17 conferences prior to the Ferguson event. The conferences shared strategies for integration that the City of Oak Park had found to be successful. Representatives of Oak Park presented their findings at the Ferguson event.
PROUD (People Reaching Out for Unity and Diversity), a volunteer not-for-profit organization, was established as a direct result of the conference. PROUD’s purpose is to continue the goals presented at the Oak Park Conference by working to improve relationships among members of the Ferguson community.