The Delta Grassroots Caucus (DGC) is a broad coalition of grassroots leaders in the eight-state Delta region. DGC is also a founding partner of the Economic Equality Caucus,
which advocates for economic equality across the USA.

Gov. Hutchinson, Sen. Boozman, Rep. Crawford, Rep. Hill, Chelsea Clinton, Delta Grassroots Leaders Set for Oct. 19-20

Posted on September 26, 2017 at 03:23 PM

Registration and group hotel deadlines are Thursday, Sept. 28 for the Delta Caucus annual conference in Little Rock, Oct. 19-20.

We have confirmed Gov. Asa Hutchinson, US Sen. John Boozman, US Rep. Rick Crawford, US Rep. French Hill, the new Alternate Federal Co-Chairman of the DRA Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Chelsea Clinton speaking about the philanthropic work of the Clinton Foundation, and grassroots advocates from all eight states.

Among the many prominent organizations and leaders confirmed in addition to those listed above are included Rep. Warwick Sabin of Winrock International, Southern Bancorp Community Partners, Nucor Yamato Steel, Dean Todd Shields of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, KIPP Delta Public Schools, the TOPPS nonprofit in Pine Bluff, the Metropolitan Inter Faith Association (MIFA) in Memphis, Tennessee, President Peggy Bradford of Shawnee Community College in southern Illinois, Al Cross of the University of Kentucky Institute for Rural Journalism and Community issues, and other grassroots leaders from across the eight-state region from southern Illinois to New Orleans.

A longer list of speakers is below in this email.

Registration, group hotel and basic schedule information are below in this message.

REGISTRATION

You register by sending in the early registration fees of $100 by Sept. 28.

Those who have paid their annual membership dues (minimum of $25) will have their registration fees reduced to $75 each.

After Sept. 28, registration fees go up to $125 each. (The earlier deadline was Sept. 19, tomorrow, but we have extended that to try to be helpful to our partners.)

We do not use registration forms to cut out unnecessary paperwork. We can send an invoice if needed. You register by paying the registration fees.

You can pay the registration fees either by going to the website at mdgc.us and using the PayPal process at the top of the website,

*OR*

If you prefer to pay by check, please make out the check to “Delta Caucus” and mail to our office in the Washington, DC area:

Delta Caucus

5030 Purslane Place

Waldorf, Maryland 20601

GROUP HOTEL

To get the reduced rate of $94 for the night of Oct. 19, please call the Holiday Inn Presidential at 501-375-2100 and say you are with the Delta Caucus group.

Most people will only need to stay one night, in order to reduce the costs. You can come to the opening session on Oct. 19, then check out on the morning of Oct. 20 for the main session, which ends at the early time of 2:15 p.m.

SCHEDULE

Opening session:

Thursday evening, Oct. 19, 2017, from 4:15 to 6:45 p.m. at the Rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol

Main session:

Friday, Oct. 20, 2017, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. at the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Library

Key speakers and issues: Chelsea Clinton will be speaking by live call-in to the Clinton Library on Oct. 20, exact time TBD.

Gov. Hutchinson speaks at 9:30 a.m. at the Clinton Library on Oct. 20, Congressman Rick Crawford speaks at 10 a.m., Sen. Boozman at 10:30 a..m., and Dean Todd Shields of the University of Arkansas J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and Angie Maxwell, Director of the Diane Blair Center for Southern Politics, are the luncheon speakers.

We have endorsed the administration’s choices for the two posts at the Delta Regional Authority: for Federal Co-Chairman, Chris Caldwell of Little Rock, a long-time aide to US Sen. Boozman, and Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau, former Lt. Governor and state legislator in Missouri, as Alternate Federal Co-Chairman. Mr. Caldwell’s appointment requires Senate confirmation and that may not occur until after the Oct. 19-20 Delta conference.

Mr. Kinder speaks at the opening session at 6 p.m. on Thursday evening, Oct. 19 at the Arkansas State Capitol Rotunda. He is now officially installed in his post and this will be our first opportunity to hear from him as one of the two Presidential appointees on this federal-state agency. Governors of the eight states are also board members of the DRA, and Congress provides the funding.

We are putting together the final details of the agenda now and will send out the first draft shortly. We have listed a number of the key speaking times above and a longer list of speakers is below in this email.

Key issues will include economic opportunity and equality, women amd minorities’ issues, investments for job creation and to improve our deteriorating transportation, housing and broadband infrastructure, and health care.

Women’s issues in the Delta: Issues regarding women and girls in the Delta will be among the key subjects for several reasons: because women still only receive 80 cents compared to a dollar for the same work, many households in the Delta are headed by women, only 27% of businesses are owned by women, violence against women continues to be a disturbing problem, and we want to recognize the many outstanding women leaders in the region.

Furthermore, the main session is at the Clinton Library, and the Clinton Foundation is a world leader regarding women’s issues thanks to President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.

The Delta Caucus is a diverse coalition with many African Americans, women, Hispanics, Native Americans, whites and people from all ethnic, gender and geographical backgrounds. We must condemn the resurgence of white supremacy in the aftermath of the Charlottesville tragedy.

Conference is being shortened to finish early at 6:30 p.m. on the Oct. 19 opening session and in the early afternoon at 2:15 p.m. for the Oct. 20 main session-so please do not leave the two sessions right before the last few speakers are scheduled.

We know that people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and therefore we are shortening both sessions of the conference and ending them earlier than we did previously.

When we are concluding so early in the afternoon on Oct. 20, we would ask that you NOT leave at 1:30 p.m. or just before the last few speakers-all the speakers have excellent qualifications and if you leave a half hour earlier you will not save yourself any appreciable amount of time, but you will place the last few speakers in the very difficult situation of speaking to a very small group of people. Please think about this and stay until the meeting is over-it ends early in the afternoon.

In addition to Gov. Hutchinson, Sen. Boozman, Congressman Hill, Congressman Crawford, DRA Alternate Federal Co-Chairman Peter Kinder, and Chelsea Clinton, we have confirmed the great majority of the speakers, including:

–Dean Todd Shields of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas, and Angie Maxwell, Director of the Diane Blair Center for Southern Politics and Culture at the Fulbright College-they will be discussing their research regarding contemporary attitudes toward women and minorities and the impact on the 2016 election;

–Andy Lemmon, Program Coordinator, Arkansas & Mississippi Gleaning Network, Society of St. Andrew, nonprofit anti-hunger organization;

–Jennifer Johnson, Southern Bancorp Community Partners, Director of Public Policy, Madison, Mississippi;

–Mayor Chuck Espy, Clarksdale, Mississippi;

–President Peggy Bradford, Shawnee Community College in the southern Illinois Delta;

–State Sen. David Wallace, (R-Leachville), who represents a district in the heart of the northeast Arkansas Delta; State Sen. Eddie Cheatham, representing southeast Arkansas;

–Bo Ryall, CEO of the Arkansas Hospitals Association, one of the most knowledgeable experts on Arkansas’ innovative Medicaid expansion program called Arkansas Works;

–Annette Dove, Executive Director of the great TOPPS nonprofit in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which works on hunger and nutrition, education, mentoring, job creation and related issues;

–Crystal Barnes, who will be president of the Pine Bluff High School student body in the coming school year, and is taking part in the TOPPS Dreams Require Educating and Motivating Students (DREAMS) program for mentoring and motivating young people in Pine Bluff; This year there are 24 graduates of the TOPPS program and 23 will be going to college and one will serve in the US Army;

–Millie Atkins, Co-Chair of the Delta Caucus’ national affiliate, the Economic Equality Caucus, and community leader in Monroe, Louisiana;

–State Rep. Warwick Sabin, a distinguished member of the Arkansas legislator who is Senior Director for the nonprofit institution Winrock International, which engages in exemplary activities across the country and the globe;

–Liz Young, Director of the Arkansas Women’s Business Center, a part of Winrock International;

–City Manager Scott Meyer of Cape Girardeau, Missouri;

–Mike Marshall, Executive Director of the Sikeston, Missouri Regional Chamber of Commerce and a veteran regional advocate for the Greater Delta region;

–Janelle Jenkins, KIPP Delta Public Schools, Helena-West Helena;

–Rebecca Reynolds, Executive Director, Arkansas Community Action Agency Association;

–Gary Latanich, Professor of Economics Emeritus, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro;

–Betty Dobson, Executive Director of a nonprofit in Paducah, Kentucky that commemorates the historic Hotel Metropolitan, where Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ike and Tina Turner stayed in the Jim Crow era;

–CEO Sally Jones Heinz of the Memphis Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, a major nonprofit in Memphis;

–Billy McFarland, Judson College in Marion, Alabama in the Alabama Black Belt, Special Assistant to the President for business development; Judson College is in the process of establishing a new rural hospital in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt;

–Al Cross, University of Kentucky Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which is national in scope; Cross has recently written a scholarly work analyzing President Trump’s appeal to rural Americans in the Delta and across the country in his 2016 campaign;

We will include other speakers on job creation, infrastructure, health care, women’s issues and economic equality from all eight states of the Greater Delta Region from southern Illinois and Missouri to New Orleans.

As always we are glad to have Randy Henderson of Nucor Yamato Steel and Nucor Steel of Arkansas in Blytheville, and Priscilla Johnson, Executive Director of the Mississippi County Arkansas Economic Opportunity Commission.

Sen. Tom Cotton was invited but was unable to speak due to a scheduling conflict.

The state Capitol and the Clinton Library were chosen as the site for the regional conference because Arkansas is located approximately in the center of the region, and the Clinton Foundation and President Clinton have an outstanding legacy and continue to do great work for the Delta. Secretary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton are among the world’s leaders in issues related to women and girls, among their other many accomplishments.

Again, we would ask people to be considerate to the last few speakers. There have been meetings where the meeting hall was full at 1:30 p.m. and then the great majority of people suddenly left, leaving the last few speakers with a very small number of people to address. When we are finishing so early in the afternoon and we only hold this event once a year, please stay that extra few minutes.

For a high-quality hotel like the Holiday Inn Presidential in the heart of the Little Rock River District and close to the Clinton Library, $94 is a good discount rate.