Karsonya (Kaye) Whitehead wanted a place where people could go to discuss race, peace and social justice, so in October 2020, she launched the Karson Institute at the Loyola University of Maryland in Baltimore.
Whitehead, an associate professor of communications and African American Studies at Loyola, was inspired to launch the institute following the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012.
Prior to his death, she thought if you worked hard enough, went to the right schools and lived in the right neighborhood, you could somehow escape racial profiling.
“You can’t outrun what’s embedded in society,” she realized after Martin’s death. “You can’t outrun systemic racism. You have to confront it and dismantle it.”