At the Healing History conference in Caux this summer, I told a story about my father. A number of people came to talk with me about it afterwards, so I decided to include it in this blog.  In 1935, as a young unemployed shipyard worker in Scotland, my dad encountered an idea that propelled him beyond the inherited doctrine of […]

Picture this scenario: An armed 17 year-old black male follows a white man at night on the suspicion (based largely on his skin color) that he has criminal intent. A struggle ensues – the black man says he was attacked – and a shot is fired. The white man is killed. When the police arrive they question the black man, […]

The international conference that opens this week in Caux, Switzerland, to address healing history and racial equity could not be more timely.More than 70 Americans will attend the forum which comes on the heels of the ruling by the US Supreme Court to invalidate key articles of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The stampede by several states to pass more […]

I recently returned from Tulsa, OK, with my colleague at Hope in the Cities ,  Tee Turner. For the past four years we have delivered workshops at the national symposium hosted annually by the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation . Tulsa, like our hometown Richmond, is working to overcome denial of its racist past, in particular, the 1921 destruction […]

Our granddaughter Lucy was baptized on May 19 in New York. It was a wonderful ceremony featuring a booming organ, a full-throated choir, and an abundance of incense. Lucy took a keen interest in all the activities. She is a delight: gorgeous red hair, a mischievous smile, a curious mind, a happy temperament, and a strong will. Although she is […]

“Our brains are wired for story,” says Gail Christopher, vice president for program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “Hearing a story changes you forever even if you don’t want it to,” says Lewis Mehl-Madrona of the Clinical Psychology Program at the Union Institute and University.The power of storytelling in our personal lives and its impact on policy was the […]

Last week Susan and I saw the movie ‘42.‘ It is the story of Jackie Robinson who, in 1947, became the first African American to play Major League Baseball. If you want to see a story of courage, grace and persistence, this is the film for you. The narrative is compelling and the cast is outstanding. Chadwick Boseman is entirely […]

We disembark in bright sunshine and walk towards the welcoming thatched roofs of the Punta Cana airport in the Dominican Republic . A chaotic scene unfolds inside as five flights have arrived almost simultaneously from the US and Canada and there appears to be only two functioning staff at the immigration desks. A long line snakes slowly through the airport […]

In 1974, a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court (Milliken v Bradley) allowed suburban schools in Detroit, Michigan, to be protected from a metropolitan desegregation plan. It set the pattern for a national trend that enabled local jurisdictions to act as “racial Berlin walls,” according to Tom Pettigrew, a leading researcher and social psychologist.  Forty years later, a bankruptcy […]

M y colleague Tee Turner calls it “the most pure act of reconciliation.” The historic apology by the police chief of Montgomery, Alabama, to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights struggle, made national news.  Lewis and fellow Freedom Riders were brutally beaten by a mob after arriving at Montgomery’s Greyhound station in May 1961 while the […]