Coming to the Table (Photo: Karen Elliott Greisdorf)In 1963, Martin Luther King called for a day when “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

Inspired by that vision and the need for connection and healing in their own lives, such descendents first collaborated in 2006 with Eastern Mennonite University to establish Coming To The Table (CTTT) based in EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

A recent CTTT national training event was held in Jackson, MS at the end of January drawing together participants from 14 different states around the country. Under the leadership of CTTT Director Amy Potter Czajkowski, an alumna of IofC’s Caux Scholars Program, the five day training focused on the healing power of storytelling and how storytelling can be used an essential resource for creating a movement.

“We don’t agree with some people’s attitudes that ‘it happened a long time ago; it is not relevant,’” says Czajkowski. “We have to know where our social problems come from. We have to start talking about parts of our history that many people would rather forget, because it still has an impact on all of us.”

Since its inception, CTTT has provided a safe space for conversation and communal learning for Americans yoked by the history of enslavement whether through their ancestral lines or by the legacy and aftermath of the institution. CTTT’s approach interweaves the following elements: learning, facing and acknowledging history; finding, making, building connections; healing self, family and community; and taking action to make amends, establish justice and equalize structures. The word table in the program title has come to stand for Taking America Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement. Among those gathered in Jackson for the training were members of both lines of Thomas Jefferson’s offspring and members of the DeWolf family of Rhode Island, the country’s largest slave trading family whose story was told in the 2008 documentary, Traces of The Trade.

The training in Mississippi was made possible as part of three year grants from the Kellogg Foundation and The Fetzer Institute. Tougaloo College, a historically black college built in 1869 on the grounds of a former plantation, hosted the event. The final afternoon was devoted to a public event at which some of the CTTT training participants were able to share their freshly honed stories with the attendees from the college and Jackson itself. The floor was then opened for the guests to share their own stories. Following the program, the CTTT training participants and local guests joined together in a ritual procession that took them first to the grove of trees in front of the former plantation’s mansion and then across to the historically restored chapel, the site of many civil rights gatherings with such giants of the era as King and Medgar Evers, who called Jackson home.

Rev. Tee Turner represented Hope in the Cities at this event. HIC has played a supportive role, including facilitating strategic planning and leading walks for CTTT participants on Richmond historic Slave Trail, since the inception of the project.

For more information visit www.comingtothetable.org