Palacio Podcast
Melissa Morgan: A Biracial Black Woman Fighting for Diversity and Justice
Melissa Morgan is an old friend of ours (Antonio Ruiz and Sumire Gant). We all worked together back in the mid-2000s on a project called ArtPeace. The project’s goal was to use art as a tool for young people to create and talk about Peace in their communities. Melissa currently works as a marketing manager for an LA-based youth-serving nonprofit focused on the environment and service. Melissa Morgan has a long history of working on issues and projects dealing with anti-bias education, diversity, equity and inclusion, and confronting prejudice and discrimination around race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, physical/mental ability, gender identity, and socioeconomic class. Melissa believes that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, and is motivated by a sense of urgency to eliminate bias in schools, communities, minds, and hearts.
It is a life mission that grew out of childhood in a small town in Pennsylvania. The daughter of a Black Father and White mother, she was loved and raised by the white side of her family.
“My family, because they were poor, they were very humble and I think that’s a lot of what I learned about how to care about community and family and our values came from very meager roots of people…who were just trying to make it and worked hard.”
Melissa Morgan, a staunch advocate for dignity and respect for all, sat down with Palaciomagazine.com to talk about being a biracial black woman born in a small Pennsylvanian town, growing up in North Florida where the memories of the South’s racist legacy still exists, and her fateful decision to move west to Southern California.
Melissa Morgan Biography
Melissa Morgan grew up in the southern region of the U.S. and graduated from the University of North Florida. Upon graduation, she served as a Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar of Good Will in Merida, Venezuela.
Melissa has a long history of involvement in human relations and has worked with civil rights organizations throughout Southern California, as well as with a national youth-serving nonprofit headquartered in Washington, DC. She has experience in leading external relations and communications initiatives, diversity education, community-police dialogues, violence prevention, youth leadership development, intergroup relations, and Hate crime education. Morgan is passionate about social justice, peace, nonviolence, and community building. She is an artist, educator, volunteer, ally, youth advocate, mom and peacemaker at heart.
To learn more about Melissa Morgan, Visit www.melissamorgancommunications.com
