Civil rights activist escorted out of Wichita City Council meeting
Civil rights activist Mary Dean was escorted out of a Wichita City Council meeting on Thursday night after she exceeded her speaking time and refused to sit down during the public comment part of the meeting.
Dean has been advocating for a reparations ordinance for Black Wichita residents for years, but has hit road blocks after the city dissolved its Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights Advisory Board.
“Council mandated me to go to the Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights Advisory Board,” Dean said during public comment. “I did everything that I was supposed to do.”
City ordinance gives at most five people five minutes to speak during public comment.
Wichita Mayor Lily Wu asked Dean to sit down several times after her five minutes were up, but Dean refused.
The Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights Advisory board voted in May to submit a letter to the City Council requesting that the city’s leaders consider a proposed reparations ordinance without endorsing the plan.
With new federal guidelines, the city recently suspended the board and has been cautious about implementing any new ordinances pertaining to race and gender.
“I don’t think it’s news to anyone that things have changed in Washington in terms of federal rules, regulations and laws,” City Manager Robert Layton said.
Dean said the city has wasted her time. She plans to file a complaint against the city with the United Nations Human Rights Council, pointing to food deserts and other health inequities among Black residents in the city.
“They have shown … the people in this city, especially Black people, that they don’t give a hoot about you,” Dean said in an interview with The Eagle after being escorted out of the building.
Dean was walked out of the building by at least two City Hall security staff and was followed by several supporters, including District 1 council candidates Joseph Shepard and LaWanda Deshazer.
“They could have took me to jail as far as I was concerned,” Dean said.