LYNN — International business executive and Classical High School graduate Emerson Foster said the Boston Men’s Dinner Group is already planning an action to build on the group’s silent racial justice protest organized last Saturday.
Women who are among the 400-500 business leaders affiliated with the group are planning a silent protest for June 20 to draw attention to racial injustice and the need for police reform.
Emerson stood with his son and fellow executives in Faneuil Hall holding signs bearing the names of men of color. The silent protesters faced Boston City Hall in a symbolic request for answers to police responsibility for racial justice and a police accountability for the deaths of men and women of color.
“I know that there are different ways to attack this issue. I wanted a visual that was very powerful. There are times when silence is just as powerful as yelling,” Foster said.
Yelling and marching have defined the racial justice movement’s dynamics since May 25 when George Floyd died under a Minneapolis police officer’s knee.
Foster, a 1985 Classical graduate and vice president for human resources North America and global strategic accounts for the international food services and facilities firm SODEXO, said Floyd’s death was the last straw.
He attributed a sense of “general frustration” in the country amplified by social media’s power for shoving the call for racial justice into America’s streets. But Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death in Georgia and Floyd’s death added urgency, Foster said, to the demands for change.
“When you have these things happen in succession; they all come together to make this a cause celebre,” he said.
With its affiliated members from different backgrounds and professions, Foster said the Men’s Dinner Group provided fertile ground for nurturing conversations about police reform.
The group grew out of discussions Foster had as a young executive 20 years ago with his mentor, attorney and former Associate Attorney General of the United States, Wayne Budd.
Foster realized his friends needed similar mentors and brought together Budd and his peers and Foster and his peers for a dinner at the Boston College Club attended by 50 men. Budd graduated BC in 1963.
The Dinner Club expanded into a professional networking group for men and women with affiliate members across the country. In conceiving how to shape a racial justice message, Foster said he was inspired by the late activist Malcolm X’s silent protest strategy.
Instead of taking his usual Saturday hike with his son, Devin, 19, Foster and other men converged on Faneuil Hall, dressed in suits and carrying signs.
“The response was incredible. People got out of their cars, honked, and some stood watching us for a half hour,” he said.
He said Saturday’s protest and the June 20 women’s protest are stepping stones to additional action and much more discussion.
“This has been a very sad time for communities of color,” Foster said.
