Chalton Askew is the first executive director of Trustbuilding Inc. in LaGrange, Georgia, the county seat of Troup County, about 70 miles south of Atlanta. The city’s population of 30,000 is 48.0% Black, 44.5% White, 4.7% Hispanic/Latino, 2.5% Asian. Askew is one of six community leaders from LaGrange who have attended the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship offered by Hope in the Cities, a […]

In the summer of 2002 Rev. Syngman Rhee addressed an international conference in Caux, Switzerland. Perched high above Lake Geneva, Caux Palace has offered a place of healing for bitterly divided groups – beginning with French and Germans after World War II. As he approached the podium, the Korean-born peacebuilder and respected leader of the Presbyterian church (USA), removed his […]

A special guest column by Rev. Dr. Paige Lanier Chargois, a Baptist minister who has pioneered truth-telling and racial healing initiatives in Richmond, Virginia, and internationally, and who has served as chaplain at eight universities. Her books include Certain Women Called By Christ:  Biblical Realities for Today. This commentary continues our conversation on the theme of finding our humanity (see […]

Guest column by Doug Tanner, Founding Director, The Faith & Politics Institute Over the last two decades, hundreds of the late Congressman John Lewis’s colleagues in the U.S. House and Senate—Democrat and Republican—joined him on an annual pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama marking the anniversary of March 7, 1965’s Bloody Sunday.  On that day, 25-year-old John Lewis and his civil rights […]

My recent blog, “No healing without truth,” has sparked some challenging conversations. A respected African American colleague, Rev. Paige Chargois, while agreeing wholeheartedly on the need for truth, writes, “Black folks have not been avoiding the truth. Quite the contrary! Black folks have been living that, writing that, teaching that, even adjudicating that for centuries!” She says that the real […]

On January 6, a white mob assaulted the US Capitol. “Hang Mike Pence!” they shouted as they forced their way into the Chambers. Some carried assault rifles and Confederate flags. Others brought explosives. One man had texted he was thinking of “putting a bullet” in Nancy Pelosi. There was no doubt about the intent of the ringleaders. They were hoping […]

It is becoming increasingly evident that trust is an essential moral foundation for the functioning of democracy. But what is trust? Most of us have an implicit understanding, but its multidimensional nature makes it hard to describe although we are very aware when it is present and when it is not. Kate Monkhouse, a British trainer and facilitator, likens it […]

“Rebuilding trust is, obviously, the work of a generation.” This is how David Brooks concludes a recent column in the New York Times. He surveys the threat to democracy presented by the refusal among large sections of the US population to accept reality and to trust proven data. He notes that social media are accelerants of paranoia by spreading misinformation, […]

History turns on small hinges. We may look back at the question posed by a 76-year-old African American woman as a key factor that made Joe Biden’s presidency possible. At a time when his primary campaign was floundering, Jannie Jones, a church usher beckoned to Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina and whispered, “I need to know who you’re going […]

“America is at a crossroads. One road leads to community, the other to the chaos of competing identities and interests.” These words, inspired by the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., are the opening sentences of A Call to Community, a manifesto for honest conversation about race that Hope in the Cities and its national partners launched in May, 1996 […]