Coming to the Table provides leadership, resources and a supportive environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal wounds from racism that is rooted in the United States’ history of slavery. Read about our approach HERE:
Coming to the Table is an associate organization of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.
Here in the North, we have inherited a powerful historical amnesia when it comes to the memory of slavery. Where I live in Massachusetts, we still worship the stories of the Sons of Liberty. We still teach “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” to our school kids…. We are the good guys.
The transformational nature of the CTTT approach requires that we meet face to face so that we can build authentic relationships, strong enough to withstand the challenges of honestly facing our past, present and future together. National meetings are much too expensive and logistically demanding to provide enough opportunities for “in the flesh” connection and healing.
My initial intent for the Slave Dwelling Project was all about saving places often overlooked by American history. It did not take long for the public to realize that someone spending a night in an extant former slave dwelling is indeed something worth noting.
“The common ground and compassion I felt in that circle invited long-suppressed tears to flow.” Descendants of lynching perpetrators and victim share their healing story from the CTTT National Gathering.
In the THH framework, when we speak of “historical trauma,” it is not simply a trauma from a historical period. Rather, historical trauma refers to an event or complex set of events that affected a significant segment of society or the entire populace. The trauma responses to the event or events were then transmitted to the following generation. The modern day impacts are what we call historical harms.
Revisiting the History of Enslavement in the United States: A Curriculum Guide for Engagement and Transformation.
The process of transformation begins with an understanding of what happened or awareness; history provides us with that awareness, as we learn the multifaceted stories that have been told.
An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America
Author Henry Wiencek explores slavery in America through the lens of George Washington’s life, and death, as a slaveholder. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for history and the Best Book of 2003 award from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Read CTTT Community member Ken Collier’s review of the book under Spotlight.
Americans are, in some very important ways, a rather unsophisticated people. One lack of sophistication lies in the ways we idolize and idealize our heroes. It is as if we think that flaws somehow detract from the importance of a hero.
1200 Park Rd.
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
877-540-2888
office@comingtothetable.org
