PAY ATTENTION!

Pay Attention! is a creation of Dr. James Brewer Stewart. We are a grassroots, diverse group of Twin Cities-based artists, advocates, and community allies who work for racial justice. We believe that injustice for one is injustice for all. Ignoring or being ignorant about the underlying and pervasive effects of racism can no longer be the way forward. As a community, we must Pay Attention!, become informed, and collaborate to promote the common good.

To acknowledge our racial history, understand its impact on the Twin Cities, and promote change—through education, community engagement, and storytelling—for a more just future.

Dr. James Brewer Stewart was a James Wallace Professor Emeritus of History at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota. An accomplished historian of race relations, he spoke nationally, authored books, appeared in PBS documentaries, and developed a series of antiracist YouTube mini-lectures.

Dr. Stewart, known to many as “Jim,” believed in the Beloved Community that Martin Luther King Jr. espoused and envisioned—a community where liberty and justice apply to all. Below is Jim’s dedication for this project, which he provided just a few days before he moved on to his next chapter.

We dedicate our work to the founders of the original Civil Rights Movement—figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, who formed themselves into a Beloved Community made up of the full spectrum of humanity. Its members, Dr. King explained, affirm the solidarity of the human family that leads us to understand that “personal growth cannot take place apart from meaningful relationships with other persons”—that the ‘I’ cannot attain fulfillment without the ‘Thou.’

Godspeed, Jim! May your good works continue and may your spirit guide and inspire us to make the Beloved Community a reality.