Mission Mississippi President Encourages People To Tackle Tough Issues Dealing With Race Relations

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – The president of a ministry that seeks to break down racial barriers is encouraging area pastors and civic leaders to continue efforts to move forward in the area of race relations.

Mission Mississippi brought together pastors, business people and other leaders during a luncheon at Tupelo’s Whitehill Missionary Baptist Church.

The lunch is part of a 25 city tour by the ministry, celebrating its 25th year of work in the area of race relations.

But it is also an opportunity for leaders to be challenged to go deeper in efforts to bridge the gap among races.

“In some instances we want to avoid dealing with the issues of the past, and then sometimes we want to pretend like the issues never existed. Both of those are wrong. So the right way, is let’s deal with the past and leave it in the past and move forward,” said Neddie Winters, president of Mission Mississippi.

Winters encouraged leaders to hold regular meetings to talk about issues involving race relations, and also to foster friendships among people of different races.