When I came to live in Richmond 30 years ago, John Coleman, one of my early mentors, told me "You have to build a bridge of trust strong enough to bear the weight of the truth you are trying to communicate."
It was good advice for a new arrival from Britain, eager to work for racial justice and easily critical of the conservative views I encountered in this city. As the son of a lifelong warrior in the labor movement, I found myself uncomfortably surrounded by people whose world view and life experiences were far removed from my own.
Coleman, a black lay preacher, founded the Peter-Paul Development Center on Church Hill. Although his primary ministry served impoverished neighborhoods, he was one of those rare individuals who cared as much for the "up and outs" as for the "down and outs." John refused to stereotype. "You have to earn the right to be heard," he told me.
I also learned that those of us who are impatient for change need a consistent set of values reflected in our personal lives and in our public actions. Howard Thurman wrote, "The root of what I condemn in others is found at long last in the soil of my own backyard. What I seek to eradicate in society . . . I must first attack in my own heart and life. There is no substitute for this."
Trust: It's a fragile bridge that must be built every day. What are the personal qualities that engender trust and how can we restore trust when it has been broken -- in our families, neighborhoods, the marketplace, and in government -- as well as in international relations?
This week, leading practitioners of conflict resolution, dialogue, and community-building will visit Richmond to explore the illusive "trust factor." They include Dr. Harold Saunders, who helped broker Arab-Israeli peace with the Camp David Accords and pioneered "sustained dialogue" with the Kettering Foundation. Also coming is Amy Potter, who directs Coming to the Table, a program that addresses the intergenerational transmission of trauma from slavery and its legacy. Others include Krish Raval, who leads a training program for rising leaders of Britain's diverse faith communities; Dr. Mishkat Al-Moumin, an Iraqi environmental expert and champion of human rights; and Syngman Rhee, who has devoted three decades to reconciliation efforts in North and South Korea.
We can expect an important challenge from Dr. Gail Christopher, vice president for programs at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which supports community strategies for racial equity as part of its broader goal to help children thrive. Christopher believes that getting to racial equity requires "changes of heart" on the part of leaders who have the authority to make some of the tough calls. Healing and reconciliation, she says, must accompany efforts to address structural racism.
Why is this forum being held in Richmond? Because dialogue, healing, and new partnerships are happening daily in a city most thought could never change. It is the first city in the U.S. to publicly, formally, and inclusively acknowledge its traumatic racial history. Participants in the forum will experience Richmond through the eyes of 10 nonprofit organizations that are working to heal history, build inclusive communities, and create healthy integrated schools. What happens in Richmond matters because societies everywhere are confronted with the need for reconciliation between communities traumatized by histories of racial, ethnic, or religious division as well as by economic disparity.
Building trust is a universal necessity. The major reforms needed in America's communities and the global challenges of poverty and climate change require levels of political courage and trust-based collaboration that can be achieved only by individuals who have the vision, integrity, and persistence to call out the best in others and sustain deep and long-term efforts. Without trust, true collaboration is unattainable. Without trust -- across racial, class, political, and religious divides -- it will be virtually impossible to generate the will to tackle the daunting challenges that lie ahead.
The emphasis this week will be on the personal qualities -- the DNA of a trustbuilder -- because trust depends on the authenticity of our lives, our openness, and our willingness to start with change in ourselves.
Rob Corcoran is the national director of Initiatives of Change. His book Trustbuilding: an honest conversation on race, reconciliation, and responsibility will be published by University of Virginia Press in 2010.
This article appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 2, 2009. It is reproduced with permission.
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