The letter that urged conventioneers to boycott Cincinnati — and ultimately led to the Rev. Damon Lynch III's removal from the mayor's race panel — has now become part of a lesson plan.

        The Rev. Phyllis Shippy's “cultural perspective class” will discuss the letter next week, one of many controversial topics tackled in her six-week course at First Christian Assembly of God, 220 William Howard Taft Road, Corryville.

        For the past three years, the courses have brought together small groups of whites, African-Americans, Africans, Hispanics and Europeans who discuss city issues such as race, voting patterns, housing, education and stereotypes. The class comprises 23 people, the Rev. Mrs. Shippy said.

        “We have a good mix: a rural white, a yuppie white and a conservative white mixed with a Southern black, a yuppie black and an upper-middle-class black,” she said.

        “We know no one group is going to convince another group that it is right on any issue, but the important thing is that we learn about each other and why we think the way we do about certain issues.”

        The church has about 1,000 members, about 10 percent of them African-American. The idea of a class started when several white members began asking themselves why they thought the way they do about blacks, she said.

        “My first class was made up of six couples — three white and three black. After the class ended, nobody wanted to leave.”

        Said participant Sandy Hall: “I grew up and still live in predominantly white Deer Park. I learned that I had a totally different perception about some issues than African-Americans at my level.”

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