From one generation to another

Cultural anthropologist and social activist Terry Buffington said she believes a healthy community is a well-educated one.

It’s partly why the sixth-generation Mississippian put down roots in the Northwest: to connect the Civil Rights Movement, which is history exclusive to the American South, to another part of the nation.

A screening of “Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker,” by African American journalist Joanne Grant, is slated for the Terry Buffington Foundation’s  free annual Lunch & Learn events Saturday in Pullman and July 12 in Spokane. A live performance by Tacoma’s singer-songwriter Stephanie Anne Johnson, who has appeared on the NBC TV series “The Voice,” will be featured in Pullman.

Buffington co-founded the Pullman-based foundation with her son Kwasi Buffington in 2022, intending to foster engagement with the grassroots activism and Black experiences that are part of U.S. history. She and Kwasi, the organization’s executive director, put together community and education events.

“Even if you reached one person,” she said. “You have made a difference.”

History is full of unsung voices, she said, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement when people fr om all walks of life participated in change.

Baker was an influential figure who, while not always in the spotlight, served as a strategist and the Re v. Martin Luther King Jr.’s right arm, Buffington said.

She played a crucial role in forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee by organizing the first meeting in 1960 at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., and was instrumental in the Freedom Summer, or Mississippi Summer Project, of 1964, which canvassed neighborhoods to register African American voters.

“I would argue that Dr. King or the freedom campaign would have never reached the mountaintop had it not been for young people like us,” Buffington said.

Also a lecturer at Washington State University’s Department of Digital Technology and Culture, Buffington said she prompts her students to think in a way that links the past to modern-day struggles.

“We have the same problems today that we did then,” she said. “I tell my students every day that you are living in a moment that you will become a primary source someday, too.”

Buffington, brought up under Jim Crow laws in West Point, Miss., said she knew at an early age listening to her parents talk that “something was out of order.” She became involved in social activism by joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as a teenager and later took part in the Mississippi Project.

“I met (Baker) when she was in her 50s,” Buffington said. “She would tell us, ‘You don’t go into communities to be a leader. Communities already have their leaders. You just need to go and help them find their voice.’ ”

Baker’s nickname was Fundi, a Swahili word for a person who passes skills from one generation to another.

Educating young people is critical, Buffington said, mostly because being familiar with U.S. history is necessary to understand the country’s complexity.

“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going,” she said. “In order to drive a movement today, you need to know American history.”

Buffington said she sees a lot of turmoil in today’s age caused by people being uninformed.

“As an anthropologist,” she said. “I have a belief that if groups of people know more about each other, we have less conflicts.”

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.

IF YOU GO

Terry Buffington Foundation Lunch & Learn

WHAT: Free screening of “Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker,” by Joanne Grant, with lunch by Washington State University catering, Q&A and live performance by singer-songwriter Stephanie Anne Johnson.

WHEN: Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: WSU Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center, 405 SE. Spokane St., Pullman.

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WHAT: Free screening of “Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker,” by Joanne Grant with lunch by Feast World Kitchen.

WHEN: Noon to 3 p.m. July 12.

WHERE: Spokane Public Library — Shadle Park, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave.