A peace walk and panel discussion seeking to strengthen relationships between police, African Americans and the community is planned for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in downtown Farmville.

“Am I Next: Debunking Stereotypes” being organized by Karima ElMadany, a Crossroads Community Services Board employee who attended Longwood University, and Hakeem Croom, an assistant dean of students at Hampden-Sydney College, will focus on bringing the community together and building relationships.

“The primary focus is to show the community that we are with police and police are with us,” ElMadany said.

The peace walk will begin at First Baptist Church on Main Street, navigate down South Main Street and conclude at the Moton Museum. At 6:30 p.m., a panel discussion will be held at Moton.

“We have a good amount of panel questions that we’re going to ask. We’re going to show some statistics as (people) are walking in … dispelling stereotypes,” ElMadany said.

“Karima and I put our heads together … We went to the original first town hall meeting that (Prince Edward County Commonwealth’s Attorney) Megan Clark put together … That was a really, really great program,” added Croom, who attended H-SC.

He said Clark’s event was “a great starter in regards to having the conversation in regards to law enforcement, you know, African Americans and civilians, trying to regain trust and trying to build trust within in Farmville. And trying to take what’s happened nationally and starting a conversation in Farmville.”

In light of civilian deaths at the hands of police and attacks on law enforcement officers across the nation, Croom said it was important to keep the dialogue open. He said he wants to build on the momentum Clark’s event started.

“We need to talk about it,” he said.

ElMadany said the discussion will focus on issues in the Farmville community, and how to overcome perceptions and unite together.

“Because, the issues at hand, it’s evident since Trayvon Martin and Eric Varner and Philando Castile, and just the multiple deaths that we’ve seen just in the last three years. It’s been consistent,” she said.

The event, overall, is purposed to raise awareness, ElMadany said.

“I think that the … #AmINext, debunking stereotypes. That is our primary focus,” she said. “A lot of our motivation behind it was, especially the race culture here in Farmville, and the history of Farmville, we felt that there is no better place to start the conversation than here. Because the media portrays a lot and it does affect us as African Americans and it does affect the community and it does affect the police in how they engage with other individuals … We’re about a cohesive unit and we support police lives, police support African-American lives, we’re going to get together and we’re going to show our community first how it’s supposed to be.”

Croom added, “We thought that, like, when we think about the media, we understand that media has been swinging the pendulum of public sympathy back and forth and trying to get people to choose a side. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be unified … There’s lives being lost on both sides and, at the end of the day, people are people.”

Croom said the event will be proactive for the community.

“I’ve been in the Hampden-Sydney (and) Farmville communities since I was 18 years old … I’m also a transient … I understand that, historically, there is generational distrust. There is generational angst among a lot of different people in the Farmville community — black, white, don’t matter your race or whatever ethnicity, there is a lot of strained relationships … There’s other things that are happening in Farmville that we need to talk about.”

“I think that me, as a mother to an African-American boy, that’s prompted me to take a stand,” ElMadany said. “We haven’t had any police killings or any killings of African Americans here, our streets aren’t flooded with channels 8, 6 and 12 right now, but, there are situations that need to be addressed before certain things escalate …”

ElMadany said the community needs to “come to a mutual agreement that right is right and wrong is wrong.”