Building Community is a Steady Walk to the Top, Not a Race
Written by Tim Buckley, February 2025
Ronnie Brooks and his wife LaNell Brooks at the MLK Day March in 2020
In his view, Rev. Brooks says that people thrive when the “pillars of family, church and school are well established and healthy.”
His experiences as a young man, and then as a career community builder with Texas A&M’s university faculty for 30 years, gave him the insights and expertise to do likewise in Salem and Keizer. At first as a volunteer, Brooks became a key figure in the school district, particularly at McKay High School, helping students find meaning and support in their life’s goals.
Claudia Rodriguez, one of the participants in the meeting, reflected on Brooks’ role in her life. “In high school, at McKay, he was an important mentor and advisor, helping me get to graduation in 2010 and then as I entered college,” she said.
Brooks has spent the last 17 years helping to build community at home, through his work with schools, through his contribution to nonprofit organizations including the NAACP, and through a church he established.
“Of course, it takes a lot of people working in collaboration to make it happen,” he said. He acknowledged Eduardo Angulo as another “mover and shaker” important to Salem and Keizer’s efforts to build community in populations striving for equity and success – academically, socially and financially.
Angulo, also in the meeting, reflected Brooks’ praise back. “We go way back,” Angulo said. “We’ve spent decades helping support McKay’s Principal while demanding more administrative support for Black and Latino students from the School Board. We joined with white allies to bring changes to how BIPOC people are seen and regarded,” he said.
The Mindset Needed for Success according to Brooks is summed up in a book he recommended: Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. “It’s important to know who you are,” he said. “It’s even more important to remember who you are when nobody’s looking.”
“Our perceptions often get in the way of our seeing clearly,” Brooks added. “It’s important to learn who you are, not assume you are what I think you are.”
“People must stand for what they believe,” he added. “We must then weave what we believe into what we do.”
“Those who are not yet at the table with us, we must bring them to the table and share,” he said. “Even when we’re deathly afraid, there is nothing we can’t overcome.”
“Start by just listening,” he concluded.