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- Conservative civil rights advocate Robert Woodson, of the Woodson Center, visited Utah to strengthen ties with state leaders.
- Woodson praised what he sees as Utah's approach to aiding those in need and criticized the traditional civil rights movements.
- He emphasized solutions over victimhood, meeting with Utah leaders and church representatives.
SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders of a civil rights group that takes a more conservative approach to helping people in need traveled to Utah for the fourth time since 2023, hoping to establish stronger ties in the Beehive State.
Robert Woodson, of the Washington, D.C.-based Woodson Center, met with Utah political leaders and representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday as part of a quick visit to the state, he said. He lauded what he views as Utah's approach to helping the impoverished and others needing a helping hand.
"Utah, from my experience over the last few years, has been a leader in how to challenge policies that are harmful to the least of God's children," he said during a meet-and-greet session at the Senate Building at the Utah Capitol complex in Salt Lake City. He expressed distaste with the "traditional" civil rights movement, particularly what he sees as its focus on seeking redress for ills of the past and victimhood.
"To me, that's worse than racism. To be patronized is worse than being hated," he said.
Rather, Woodson said he takes a forward-looking approach focused on finding solutions to problems faced by the poor, drug addicts and others needing aid with an emphasis on self-sufficiency. Though the Woodson Center has traditionally worked with the Black community, he said the group's focus is all people needing help, whatever their race or ethnicity.
"When we come together, all we are concerned about is overcoming brokenness in our lives. If you're a junkie, you ain't a white junkie or a Black junkie. You're a junkie, and that's brokenness," Woodson said. "So when we come together, all we talk about is solutions."
Willie Levi Crossley, executive vice president at the Woodson Center, said the organization promotes self-reliance, resilience and perseverance. He also made the trip to Utah. Those are "core principles" of the United States, he said, and for other communities of the country, "including the African American community."
Apart from church leaders, Woodson and Crossley met at Thursday's informal gathering at the Senate Building with Senate President Stuart Adams, Attorney General Derek Brown, Utah Sen. John Johnson and other Utah lawmakers and Utah Board of Education members.
Jamie Renda, of Ogden, helped organize Thursday's meeting and said the trip was Woodson's fourth to Utah. She has previously invited Woodson to Utah to collaborate with a group she leads, Path Forward Utah, and is forging a relationship between the Woodson Center and a new organization she is forming, Hope of Utah. Renda has worked with "underserved communities" in Utah, including communities of color, espousing a more conservative message focused on the family, personal empowerment and bridging divides.
Woodson leans conservative, she said, but she particularly likes his approach because he's pragmatic and focused on finding solutions.
Woodson "sees Utah as leading the way in trying to move forward and past the racial divide we've had," Renda said. "He's the solution person. He just doesn't want to talk about problems."
Woodson visited Utah in 2023, talking at Weber State University as a conservative counterpoint to an earlier visit by Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The 1619 Project, the New York Times initiative. Hannah-Jones maintains that African Americans are owed reparations for the role of their enslaved ancestors in the early development of the United States, an approach Woodson sees as divisive, backward-looking and counterproductive.
"As the veteran of the civil rights movement, I am appalled that the Black community and its rich legacy of the civil rights movement is being used as a bludgeon to destroy this country," he said during the Weber State visit, according to the Standard-Examiner.
He offered similarly sharp remarks on his stop in Salt Lake City on Thursday, referencing critics who bristle at his approach for not focusing on historic racism Black people and other minorities have faced. "People who push away on this are never grassroots. It's always the professionals who are part of the grievance industry. They don't want these efforts to succeed because if Black people lose their grievance, they lose their income," he said.
