The Middle Passage refers to the forced transatlantic journey endured by millions of Africans who were captured, enslaved, and transported to the Americas. The International African American Museum offers a powerful exhibit that brings this history to life. Visitors are encouraged to view data, oral histories, photos, and other artifacts that demonstrate the harsh realities of the slave trade and its lasting impact. For those who ask "Why?" the United States (or other slave-t

On the brink of yet another European war and another American civil war, I'm sharing a YouTube link to a visual representation of Maya Angelou's poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993). Her stanza, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again" came to mind during a recent discussion with a close friend about why so many Americans are unwilling to face so-called "Black History" with courage. Hoping we will find the

Black History Month offers us a time to reflect upon the many contributions that African Americans have made to make the USA a more prosperous and perfect union....Regrettably it also reminds us how we the people are still struggling with how to confront race and caste truthfully as a means towards reconciliation and UNITY in a new system that guarantees freedom, justice and liberty for ALL. It is tough to watch videos of the 1950s and 60s and realize that today African Amer

Today marks the 154th anniversary of when (on 1/3/1867) Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (PA) and Senator Charles Sumner (MA) began leading efforts to legislate full voting rights for the former slaves... Dr. King (56 years ago yesterday on 1/2/1965) furthered those efforts by starting the Selma Voting Registration Drive. Unfortunately our nation is still deeply divided and battling over how to establish equal voting rights for ALL.... Let's lay aside party and politics...and in

Sharing on this momentous evening "America the Beautiful", first popularized in 1895 as a poem by educator, Katharine Lee Bates and then made a soulful national anthem in 1970s by musical genius, Ray Charles. Now more than ever, we who "love country more than self" are called upon to UNIFY "in brotherhood from sea to shining sea" and join in prayer that: "America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!" With over 237,000 Am

In memory of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who advocated for over 60 years as a lawyer and jurist to establish gender equality as an accepted principle of constitutional law, I share "Avinu Malkeinu" to honor her Jewish heritage and her love of opera. It is also timely because this song, really a Hebrew prayer contains verses asking that "Our Father Our King to Hear Our [UNIFIED] Voices and End Epidemics, End All Oppression.... Anew For Us A Good Year." R.I.P N

Racial Reconciliation More Important Now Than Ever Before

Asking the right questions is more than half the battle of finding ways to effectuate an organization’s diversity goals.

10 “Freedom Songs—Diverse Voices” to inspire your reflection and your leadership in this LONG journey towards equal justice under law

“Most Americans are not overtly racist, but we live in a systemically racist nation with systemically racist institutions…. anti-racism has very little to do with your personal racist views, anti-racism is all about your willingness to change the system." --Pastor Mark Charles Recently my seemingly matured understanding of what it means to worship in spirit and in truth has been upended as I have read through Racism and the Church by Dr. James Collins ( a book gifted to me b

Dear Neighbors, Google BackstoryRadio.org and reparations to listen to an hour and fifteen minute scholarly synopsis of the history of the reparations movement, starting with often overlooked female organizer, Callie House (1861-1928) and continuing through riveting interviews with advocates of the Rosewood, FL Claims Bill (1994) and Georgetown University 272 Referendum (2019), a clip from Dr. King’s often ignored “We’re coming to Washington to get our check” speech (1968),

Dear Neighbors, When Color Line Roundtable participant, Tracy Lunquist first e-mailed me expressing her interest in leading a group discussion about Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility (2018), I welcomed her enthusiasm for filling in the gap in our discussion series with a fresh, white woman's perspective. But I had NOT heard of DiAngelo, her book or her Whiteness Studies sociological approach. This past week I listened to White Fragility on Audiobooks and I enthusiastical

Dear Neighbors: In reading through the morning news, I “LOVED” Tom Popomaronis's CNBC.com article, J.K. Rowling's greatest advice to Harvard grads is disturbingly dark—but honestly, so brilliant and true, about J.K. Rowling’s greatest advice to 2008 Harvard grads. (View entire speech on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c) The takeaway for me was that I probably have an overactive capacity for imagination —always imagining myself in other, less fortunat

As we approach the Dr. MLK Jr. national holiday on Monday, consider below a text message that I shared with family and friends earlier this week to provide a very rough and imprecise summary of some lessons from Michelle Alexander’s highly acclaimed book, The New Jim Crow (2012). In this book, Alexander describes in unflattering but thorough detail how racism in America is not a relic of our past, but a continuing stain on our national character with continuing pernicious e

Dear Neighbors, Until today I had no intention of interrupting this festive holiday season with any serious statement on what are the least favorite topics of a majority of Americans, “race” and “poverty”. Indeed, I had myself embraced the escapism that generally marks the holiday season by sending out the following holiday greeting via text and Facebook: To usher in the Christmas spirit during your commute or as background music at work or home, click to enjoy a YouTube pl

To comfort those who are grieving in the wake of the Pittsburgh PA synagogue massacre and Jeffersontown, KY killings, and those who are still grieving from the bigotry unleashed during the Charlottesville, VA race riots, Orlando, FL Pulse nightclub massacre and Charleston church massacre....and to soothe our wounded national identity as a "melting pot". “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied i

Surrounded by signs that our nation is deeply divided along political/economic/social/racial lines, I was at first drawn to detach and escape to the comfort of the uplifting hymn, "When We All Get to Heaven" which at least assures us that we will come together in the by and by....But based on my circumstances and calling I have never had the luxury of such detachment....so I offer you instead a video compilation with both that hopeful hymn (written by Methodist Educator Eliza

Reflecting on the one-year anniversary of the racialized violence in Charlottesville VA and the fact that Charlottesville and other...

Good evening Neighbors, At the end of this infamous day in the history of our struggle for freedom and justice, I write to share a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail and all of Poet Maya Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning”. For me, these two prolific writings embody the historic basis for our common ground and the reasons we must remain hopeful when we wake up each morning and continue together on this long journey towards justice

A few weeks ago on a college campus in a city not too far away, construction workers unearthed a bronze equestrian statue of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson posed atop his favorite horse, Little Sorrel. Debate erupted on the predominantly white private college campus amongst administrators, faculty, staff, students and alumni after members of the history department verified that the statue was one of several Confederate monuments that the college (with funds r