Illustration by Kevin McFadin
Taylor Branch, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the early years of the civil rights movement, “Parting the Waters,” writes:
“Almost as color defines vision itself, race shapes the cultural eye — what we do and do not notice, the reach of empathy and the alignment of response. This subliminal force recommends care in choosing a point of view for a history grounded in race.”
Our personal histories shade our perceptions and interactions with others. What can widen them is taking the time to learn our national, state and regional history, especially from 1902 forward, and to listen to others who wish to share their stories.
In 2016, after the presidential and mayoral elections, and a Halloween blackface incident, Richmond magazine with a host of partners held a three-part event called “The Unmasking: Race & Reality in Richmond,” a look at the impact of racial trauma, our region’s history and implicit biases.
It was one small effort in a long line of work in the region (see below) to gather people together and explore how our state and nation flourished because of slavery, how our city was the largest market for enslaved blacks outside of New Orleans, and how our state lawmakers, trying to maintain white supremacy, invoked Jim Crow laws and stripped away rights gained during Reconstruction by passing the 1902 Virginia Constitution. That document was left intact until 1972, despite massive changes to federal law in the 1950s and 1960s.
[The eye] can always take in more, expanding empathy, support and action throughout our region.
Our region is still without an efficient public transportation system extending throughout the area, without a system of modern city schools that provide safe environments conducive for learning and without a highly specific plan for affordable housing in the region.
In mid-January, I had breakfast with my 11-year-old nephew and his mother, my sister-in-law Marquita Winiecki, who moved here from Wilmington, North Carolina, where she served on diversity and inclusion committees at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Marquita came from a city that was part of a larger regional government, that of New Hanover County, and she still can’t fathom all the governmental separations here in the Richmond region. “There’s no commonality. … It’s, ‘That’s them, and this is us,’ ” she said with frustration. “And no one is really teaching children the history of what has happened here.” Contributing to that gap in knowledge are state textbooks that have completely ignored the brutality endured by the enslaved and failed to include Richmond’s central role in the trade of humans.
The recent placement of a statue of banker Maggie Walker on Broad Street, the nearby mural of journalist John Mitchell Jr., the work around the Devil’s Half Acre site in Shockoe Bottom, the newly acquired collection of the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker’s papers at the University of Richmond and additional outreach through Richmond-based Initiatives for Change all will help illuminate the region’s broader and more complete history, as could the suggestion of renaming the Boulevard for Arthur Ashe, which would put his name on the lips of many schoolchildren who come to Richmond for a field trip.
As Branch said, our cultural eye is, of course, clouded by our experiences, but it can always take in more, expanding empathy, support and action throughout our region.
Get Involved
A sampling of groups doing racial reconciliation work in the region
Established in 2015, Coming to the Table-RVA hosts community dinners and discussions on the third Tuesday of each month. Coming to the Table was inspired by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision that “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
Formerly known as Hope in the Cities, Initiatives for Change recently received one of 14 Kellogg Foundation grants from a $24 million pool to address truth, racial healing and transformation throughout the Richmond region. Events began on Jan. 22, the National Day of Racial Healing, and will run throughout the year. IOFC also offers a Community Trustbuilding Fellowship program.
Founded in 1987, Richmond Hill is an ecumenical retreat center within a historic monastery. Its mission is to foster the healing of the Richmond region through spiritual development, racial reconciliation and prayer.
Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities is made up of diverse congregations. Annually, hundreds of leaders conduct intensive research to address root causes of injustice. In spring 2019, the process will culminate with the Nehemiah Action Assembly, during which more than 1,000 people will seek commitments from local decision-makers on affordable housing solutions.
The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities
Based in Richmond, this nonprofit works with schools, businesses and communities to achieve success through inclusion by offering workshops, retreats and forums.
