Today marks the 30th anniversary of Richmond’s first “walk through history.” On a sweltering June 18 afternoon, people from 50 cities and 25 countries joined Richmonders of all backgrounds to mark places that had been too painful or shameful to acknowledge. The walk was the highlight of the Healing the Heart of America conference, “an honest conversation on race, reconciliation, […]
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A new way forward for Left and Right?
A recent op-ed in the Daily Beast by Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Ian Marcus Corbin, a philosopher at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Fellow at the think tank Capita, declared, “The left needs a spiritual renaissance. So does America.” The writers point to the failures of neoliberalism – rampant consumerism, economic inequality, loss of community – as the […]
Finding a post-confederate identity
In 1849, Henry Brown escaped from slavery in Richmond, Virginia, by arranging to have himself mailed in a crate to Philadelphia. Henry “Box” Brown as he became known, was among some fifty-five men owned by William Barret who had sold Brown’s pregnant wife and child to another slave master. Most of the men worked in Barret’s tobacco factory. Brown’s story […]
Break the cycles of cruelty
Incidents of people of color, particularly Black men, meeting their death at the hands of police occur with heartbreaking frequency. This week, I took part in a deeply moving Zoom call with some of the Initiatives of Change USA network in a dozen cities, including alumni of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship and Caux Scholar programs. The expected agenda for the […]
Look out the window!
When my siblings and I were children in the UK, one of our favorite people was Paul Petrocokino. He was a tall, very gifted musician, who was a passionate promoter of Handel’s music and composed in his style. Paul, whose father was Greek, and his American wife, owned a 17th century English country manor with extensive grounds in Hertfordshire where […]
Light in the darkness
It’s hard not to get discouraged by the deepening political and racial polarization, the widespread undermining of democracy, the brutal assault on Ukraine, and the constant focus on negative news by the media. As we close out the year, I want to share some hopeful developments and news of how inspired actions are shining light in the darkness of the […]
Expect the unexpected
Sports can spring surprises. On the first day of the FIFA World Cup, Saudi Arabia astonished the football world by defeating Argentina. Although Argentina recovered to qualify for the final 16, two other highly rated teams were eliminated: Belgium was stunned by Morocco; and Japan defeated Spain (although Spain still qualified) and knocked out Germany in the process. There will […]
A man on a bench
I was going to write about racism or threats to our democracy. But instead, this blog is about one person. A man who is truly at peace with himself and lives to share that peace with others. Leroy can be found most days outside a garage where I take my car for oil changes or inspections. He sits on a […]
From the Devil’s half acre to God’s half acre
Little is known about the remarkable woman whose resilience and determination resulted in Richmond’s most notorious slave jail becoming the birthplace of today’s Virginia Union University. Yet Kristen Green, through meticulous research and vivid imagination, has illuminated the story of Mary Lumpkin and placed her in the context of the struggle for freedom and dignity in America’s brutal environment of […]
First Community Trustbuilding Fellowship Summit
Alumni of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship Program met in Richmond, Virginia on June 9. Representatives from every cohort since 2004 took part. They shared what they most remembered from their experience and what has been most impactful for them in their work. High on the list were the building of a diverse community over the course of five weekends, the […]