CHARLEROI (TNS) — If there was ever a time to sit down and share a meal with strangers of different faiths and ideologies, it seems unlikely that time would be now.
Americans are more divided on issues than ever before, research shows. Political polarization, exacerbated by misinformation and a contentious election cycle, has left communities in conflict.
Yet on a recent Saturday evening, about 75 people crowded into a small room at an event center in Charleroi, Washington County, where a local performer sang an original song he titled, “Better Together.”
After they piled their plates with pizza, Haitian and Liberian cuisine, the attendees sat down next to strangers they, on a surface level, had little in common with. And then, they talked.
In September, President Donald Trump claimed that immigrants are bringing an increase in crime to Charleroi and that the growing Haitian community had made it “virtually bankrupt.” The borough and its migrant residents say they’ve have been dogged by anti-immigration sentiment and threats ever since.
“Any issues going on within the community, a lot of it seems to be pushed back and pushed off on the Haitians,” said Michael Lehmier, a community leader and regional field manager of PA Education, a union that represents teachers in Charleroi.
But organizers hoped this gathering, dubbed the “Love Anyway Feast,” was a way to see past that. Put on by local leaders and Search for Common Ground, the world’s largest organization dedicated to peacebuilding, the idea is that regardless of political affiliation, everybody loves to eat. And once you bring people together, you can bridge the divide between them.
Events like these drive community-driven solutions, which are the most significant weapon in the fight against the alarming rise in political violence, according to researchers. And, in Pennsylvania, which stands out among other states for its history of political violence and extremism — both recent and past — local leaders and experts are amping up their efforts to mitigate tensions before they manifest into action.
“We’re trying to get ahead of what we see in other places,” said Will Fuller, who heads Pennsylvania’s Resilient States Project from Common Ground USA. “[And] then also to help people understand that the solution to that, at least as far as we have seen across the world, is also local and very rooted in [community] relationships.”
INCIDENTS OF POLITICAL violence — ideologically driven threats, harassment, intimidation or physical violence that makes people less comfortable engaging in core democratic processes — have persisted for years across the Keystone state. That’s the reason Common Ground expanded its initiative, the Resilient States Project, to just two states: Pennsylvania and Texas.
In 2023, Pennsylvania was ranked fourth in the nation for its number of active hate and antigovernment groups (78), trailing only California, Florida and Texas in numbers, according to a recent report from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that attempted to keep Trump in the White House, 107 Pennsylvanians were charged in connection to the riots. The commonwealth trailed only Florida (138) and Texas (112) in number of Jan. 6 defendants, according to media outlet City & State PA.
And for years, experts have warned that Western Pennsylvania had become a focal point for white supremacy and extremists. Pennsylvania has been tied to these threats of extremism, especially after the assassination attempt on Trump at the Butler Farm Show grounds in July left one person dead and two injured.
Gov. Josh Shapiro referenced that July 13 attack at a news conference following the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the man arrested in Altoona last month after allegedly shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to death on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk on Dec. 4.
“That is not what we do in a civilized society,” he said. “That was true in Butler, it was true in NYC, it’s true anywhere. That is not how you make progress in this country. That is an important lesson coming out of Pennsylvania and it is one that I think the rest of the country needs to hear as well.”
MUCH OF THE WORK to head off political violence in Pennsylvania has revolved around the work of local and community leaders. People who distrust national leaders and institutions still tend to trust their local officials, research shows.
“And local leaders already have experience working across dividing lines to get things done — I mean, you don’t need to be associated with a certain party to agree to fix a pothole,” said Emily Holmes, the senior state program officer for Pennsylvania Resilient States.
Community-based solutions also allow local leaders to “own and shape” the narrative about their hometown, Holmes said.
She also cited the Butler Fair Grounds incident. Holmes said they collaborated with faith leaders in Butler who were quick to organize a vigil and then a cleansing of the grounds — a beloved site for many Butler residents — after the shooting.
“That allowed the community the opportunity to define to the national audience who they were and drown out the rest of the noise that was talking,” she said.
In Charleroi, when local leaders saw warning signs that violence could be imminent — including the online distribution of flyers directed to “White Citizens of Charleroi” that encouraged them to “take a stand” and join the Ku Klux Klan group — they mobilized their own coalitions to ease tensions.
“We got them active on social media, public appearances, things like that, to basically say our community is strong together, and we’re stronger when we stand up for each other and we’re not going to let someone from the outside tell us who we are,” Fuller said.
Charleroi Borough Manager Joseph Manning said how local government responds is also critical. After Trump’s remarks, Manning said the local administration quickly stated that hate speech or harassment would be swiftly prosecuted.
Manning said sometimes local politicians can contribute to polarization in communities, as some look at groups in the community simply as “voting blocs.”
“I hated that from the time I started actively participating in political campaigns,” Manning said at a December town hall event in Charleroi called “No Hate in Our State.”
“If you want to truly erase the problems between races and barriers, start to treat the people in your communities like neighbors and like fellow citizens who have the same problems you have,” he said.
