By Dianne Anderson

Pictures worth 1,000 words or more are sure to spark thought-provoking, if not politically charged, conversations behind the fight against discrimination and other DEI topics now forbidden in many federally funded circles.

Dr. Audrey Maier said this year’s exhibition of 27 powerful Homegrown Heroes shows how they have braved the political storms of life around gender, national origin, and a significant focus on race and ethnicity.

“We have some fantastic heroes including Rose Mayes, who is the head of the Fair Housing Council of Riverside. She has an amazing story about how she was called to activism that folks can learn about,” said Dr. Maier, Public History Director at the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California.

Also featured is Robert Bland, who led the effort to integrate Riverside’s Eastside School, and how his legacy is lasting, but especially relevant today.

“We are really honored and happy to talk about [the late] Rev. Bernell Butler. We are so thankful we were able to record his oral history and his story about all the work he did around Tyisha Miller’s murder. We did an interview with him that ended up being one of his final interviews,” said Maier, curator of the exhibit.

Hundreds of visitors have come through the exhibit, which explores various aspects of civil rights, and they expect hundreds more in the months ahead. Each panel is a profile of an individual.

“[We have] Benita Ramsey’s panel with her portrait photos of her, one of her kente cloth outfits she wears as a pastor and so many quotations that were taken from her oral history interviews that we did with her and the rest of our homegrown heroes,” she said.

Doors are open for viewing from noon to 5:00 p.m., ongoing each Wednesday through Friday, located at 3933 Mission Inn Ave., Suite 103 in Riverside.

The institute, co-founded by Rose Mayes, rotates exhibitions every few months, with several more in store throughout the year. Previous exhibitions included “Still I Rise: The Black IE Fight for Justice,” with a spotlight on migrant farmworkers in Coachella, along with a showcase of up-and-coming photographers from San Bernardino.

A diverse range of stories are highlighted from across the Inland Empire, but also hoping to spur community to action. One highlight of the exhibition is that they ask people to think about how they can contribute to the cause through personal action.

“A lot of folks say I’m not a hero, I’m just doing my job. They saw something wrong in their communities and wanted to take action,” she said. “We want to inspire our visitors to similarly be involved in their communities and how they can make a difference.”

This month and year-round, statewide health advocate Rhonda Smith works to address health disparities and advocate for policies in areas of health equity, mental health, maternal and child health, chronic diseases, and public health education.

With such an onslaught of policy against vital services, she feels the community must hold elected officials accountable to prevent bad decisions that will negatively impact health.

First and foremost, she said that self-care is important in these times, but  there is still power in the vote.

“One thing we can do after taking care of ourselves, is to call our representatives, bombard them with letters and phone calls, and say this is unacceptable. Call D.C. and tell them this needs to stop,” said Smith, executive director of the California Black Health Network.

Helping each other is part of what has kept the Black community strong, she said. One Black Health Network member lost their home in the recent fires, and is now struggling.

Support for historically Black middle-class neighborhoods like Altadena should not be forgotten, but she worries gentrification threatens long-standing Black communities that may now be forced from their homes where they’ve lived for generations.

Protecting communities from social upheaval is her top priority, and unity in the fight to protect healthcare rights for BIPOC populations.

Next month, she plans to attend a health equity roundtable in Sacramento where health leaders will cover developing strategies and next steps against systemic barriers from recent executive orders around healthcare.

“We need to do what we have to do to take care of ourselves, we are resilient people,” she said. “Now more than ever, we need to come together to figure out how to win this fight, to do what we can to protect our rights, and resources that we currently or historically have had access to.”

From healthcare to housing to education and everything DEI in between, local leaders are resisting the wrecking ball of new federal policies considered in direct violation of civil and constitutional rights.

At the helm, Assemblymember Dr. Corey A. Jackson and other Democrats recently passed two new laws to get ahead of the unfair rules as they flood down from Washington.

SBX1-1 sets aside $25 million to California’s budget for a legal fund. That money helps the state’s lawyers fight for emergency aid from the federal government if it’s denied after disasters, like wildfires, helping bring billions of dollars back to California.

SBX1-2 includes $25 million to help Californians and immigrant communities with free legal services, especially for veterans, the disabled, unhoused youth, those facing eviction, seniors, and victims of domestic violence, wage theft and human trafficking. It won’t be used for people convicted of serious crimes.

Assemblymember Dr. Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley) said that by removing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs through Executive Orders, the Trump Administration is launching a direct attack on People of Color and the nation’s core values.

“These orders not only aim to exclude people of color but also financially harm critical government agencies dedicated to building diverse and equitable workforces. DEI programs are vital in providing equal opportunities for everyone, and it’s absurd that the current administration is undermining efforts to ensure access for all Americans. This is not only a racist agenda; it is a betrayal of the values America stands for, and it has no place in the Oval Office,” Dr. Jackson said.

For the Inland Civil Rights Institute, see

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Also upcoming at RCC, see https://www.rcc.edu/about/news/2025-black-history-month-rcc.html

For CBHN, see https://www.cablackhealthnetwork.org/