UNPACKING THE 2010 CENSUS:

New Realities of Race, Class, and Jurisdiction

This Fall schools throughout Mississippi will begin covering a mandated civil rights history curriculum for the first time thanks to action taken by the State Legislature, believed to be the first of it’s kind in the U.S. But this past summer, 18 students from Philadelphia, MS discovered there’s no substitute for literally walking through history when it comes to learning the facts of the past and their relevance for today.

“Race, freedom, and justice” is the theme of a new project launched by Hope in the Cities in collaboration with the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, the state NAACP, and other partners, including school-age students. It will explore aspects of the Civil War with emphasis on slavery, emancipation, racial equity, and healing.

This month Hope in the Cities and the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities launched a region-wide project aimed at provoking discussion about new policy options to address poverty and structural inequity in metropolitan Richmond. Forty people took part in a weekend training as presentators of “Unpacking the 2010 Census: The New Realities of Race, Class and Jurisdiction."

Ben Campbell wastes no time in naming hard truths in his new book, Richmond’s Unhealed History. It opens in 1607 with Captain Christopher Newport and his men arriving at the fall line of what is now the James River. They "planted the seed of a great nation with unprecedented opportunity for all human beings; they also planted seeds of economic exploitation, racial discrimination, a hierarchical class system, and a heretical version of Christianity….”

I recently returned from serving as a 2011 Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar in India. For 20 years, I dreamt about being a Fulbrighter. It seemed the time was never right to apply – starting a new job, going to grad school, getting married, moving, having kids – but finally I just did it! I left my job after six years at the Omaha Community Foundation and this turned out to be a life-changing opportunity to grow personally, professionally and spiritually.

Distinguished historians of the Civil War and its aftermath spoke on “Healing the Wounds of History: North-South, Black-White” at a special forum in Washington, DC, on December 12. “We want to explore how the wounds of history are playing into the political polarization,” said former diplomat Joseph Montville, the moderator, noting that “resentment is very much alive in Congress today.”

“Nós aprendemos que o tempo não cura as feridas. Só a cura o faz. Nós temos que enfrentar as feridas da história e dar voz a elas.”

For many years, I’d been at war: active in the battle for civil rights of the 1960s, the struggle for Vietnam veterans, antiapartheid/divestment/colonialism in Southern Africa in the 1970s, and tenant/elderly rights during the 1980s.