1992: Hope in the Cities – 'Where healing can take place'

By Rob Corcoran

24/09/2021
Hope in the Cities - Dr Robert Taylor (left, John Smith and Audrey Burton at Caux 1992

 

In July 1992, 80 Americans arrived at the Initiatives of Change Switzerland conference centre in Caux with an urgent question: how to address racism, poverty and alienation in US cities. Rob Corcoran who worked for Initiatives of Change in Richmond, Virginia, at that time, remembers.

Three months earlier, Los Angeles had exploded after the acquittal by a largely white jury of four white police officers who were caught on camera beating a Black motorist, Rodney King. Four days of riots, violence and looting had left more than 50 dead and 1,100 properties destroyed.  

Just a month before the events in Los Angeles, a group from several US cities had met in Richmond, Virginia, and agreed to work towards a public event which would directly address the issue of race, under the auspices of Hope in Cities. Still in its early stages of development, Hope in the Cities was a grassroots initiative, based in Richmond – capital of the Confederate states in the American Civil War – and inspired by Initiatives of Change. My wife, Susan, and I hosted a home where the group often met.

 

Hope in the Cities team at Caux: l to r: Audrey Burton, Collie Burton, Cricket White, Walter Kennedy, Cleiland Donnan, Tee Turner, Rob Corcoran (photo Karen Greisdorf)
The Hope in the Cities team (left to right): Audrey Burton, Collie Burton, Cricket White, Walter Kenney, Cleiland Donnan, Tee Turner, Rob Corcoran

 

Richmond’s mayor, Walter Kenney, led a delegation of 22 community leaders to the conference in Caux. They included Howe Todd, a senior white city administrator, and Collie Burton, a Black community organizer who had strongly opposed Todd on policy issues. The two men had built an unexpected friendship and their new approach had stirred city-wide interest.  

At Caux, the Richmonders met with young community activists and racial equality officers from the UK, leaders of the favellas in Rio de Janeiro and former gang members from Los Angeles. They heard from Bernard Gauthier, the former chief of police of Northern France, and John Smith, an Australian Methodist minister whose ‘God Squad’ bike gang reached out to street kids, drug addicts and others in youth subcultures.

If it can’t happen in Caux, where can it happen?

At times the conference sessions were confrontational. Many participants were raw from experiences of racism. Audrey Brown Burton, who had worked in New York’s Department of Corrections, was outspoken about the issue. ‘Our criminal justice system is criminal,’ she declared, noting that Black Americans received, on average, longer sentences than whites for the same crimes.

In the face of such blunt talk many whites turned silent. Black caucuses formed and there was even a walkout in protest at one speaker. An alarmed white Britisher said to me, ‘This should not be happening in Caux.’ My response was, ‘If it can’t happen in Caux, where can it happen?’

 

Unveiling of reconciliation statue Richmond 2007 (photo Karen Greisdorf)
Unveiling of the reconciliation
statue in Richmond, 2007
Tee Turner at the reconciliation statue (photo Rob Corcoran)
Tee Turner at the reconciliation statue

Over the days, silence and confrontation gave way to honest conversation. Melanie Trimble, a white student from the southern US said, 'I want to ask forgiveness for my prejudice and indifference.' She said she had had good Black friends in school 'but we just didn't talk about race solutions much and I've never myself been in a place where whites and Blacks were working on race directly and being honest about it’.

One day, many of the Americans gathered to reflect on what they had experienced. Melanie urged the group to focus on themes of ‘racism, reconciliation and responsibility’. At the end of the meeting, we stood in a circle and committed ourselves to the healing of racism in America. Many of us knew that we were making a lifetime commitment.

Mayor Kenney invited the conference delegates to Richmond the following year. The Americans stated their commitment to facing ‘the agony of race, which stems from the original sin in our national soul – slavery’.

In June 1993, 500 people from cities across the USA as well as Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Australasians and Europeans, joined Richmonders for a conference on ‘Healing the Heart of America: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation and Responsibility’. Melanie Trimble took on the formidable task of organizing logistics for the highlight of the conference: Richmond’s first walk through its history of racism and slavery.

Many of us knew that we were making a lifetime commitment.

 

Hope in the Cities - Richmond's first walk through its history of slavery, 1993 (photo Rob Lancaster)
Richmond's first walk through its history of slavery, 1993

 

In the following years, Hope in the Cities developed an approach to dialogue which was taken up by cities across America. Richmond created a Slave Trail Commission and is now developing a museum and heritage centre on the site of its former slave market. In 2007, Governor Tim Kaine led Virginia in becoming the first state to apologize for its role in promoting and defending slavery, and 5,000 people, including representatives from African countries involved in the slave trade, celebrated the unveiling of a reconciliation statue by Liverpool sculptor, Steven Broadbent. The universities, museums and libraries have formed a consortium to tell Richmond’s history honestly and inclusively.

 

Tee Turner leading a group along the Richmond Slave Trail (photo Guy Woodland)
Tee Turner leading a group along the Richmond Slave Trail

 

I worked closely with Dr Gail Christopher of the WK Kellogg Foundation as she developed the concept for a national Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation initiative. In 2013 she brought 20 leaders of racial healing and racial justice organizations to Caux. As we walked along the terrace, she said to me, ‘This is a place where healing can take place’.

This is a place where healing can take place.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Rob Corcoran

Rob Corcoran is a trainer, facilitator, writer and racial healing practitioner. His book Trustbuilding: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility has been described as a ‘visionary, compelling account of healing and change'.

 

More about Hope in the Cities here.

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Watch the recording of the Healing the Heart of America initiative (1993).

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

 

  • Photo top showing Dr Robert Tayor (left), John Smith, Audrey Burton in Caux, 1992: Rob Corcoran
  • Photo Richmond's first walk: Rob Lancaster
  • Photo Tee Turner at statue: Rob Corcoran
  • Photo team & unveiling of statue: Karen Greisdorf
  • Videos Healing the Heart of America: Initiatives of Change International
Featured Story
Off
Event Categories
75 stories 75th anniversary

related stories

This is us square 8.png

75 Years of Stories: Meet the team!

When we launched the 75 Years of Stories series in February 2021 about 75 years of encounters at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux, we had no idea what an adventure we had embarked o...

Caux in snow 2021 credit Cindy Bühler

2021: Initiatives of Change Switzerland – Opening Caux’s doors to a new chapter

As our series of 75 stories for 75 years of the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux draws to an end, the President of Initiatives of Change Switzerland, Christine Beerli, and its two Co-Di...

Aad Burger

2020: Aad Burger – Struck by a virus

In 2020, the Caux Forum went online in response to the pandemic. Its organizers found that this made Caux accessible to people all over the world who could not have taken part in normal circumstances....

Marc Isserles 2017

2019: Marc Isserles – ‘We must save the children’

During World War II, the Caux Palace (later the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Switerland) provided a refuge for Jews fleeing the Shoah. Over the years, some of them – or their descendants...

Wael Broubaker climate actionist

2018: Wael Boubaker – ‘Climate change should be top top top priority’

When Tunisian economics graduate Wael Boubaker joined the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP) in 2018, he expected a conference which would look good on his CV, and some beautiful scenery. Inst...

Tanaka Mhunduru CPLP

2017: Tanaka Mhunduru – A home for the world

Tanaka Mhunduru from Zimbabwe is one of the organizers of the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme (CPLP), a one-month programme for young people from around the world. He first took part in 2017....

Diana Damsa Winter Gathering 2016

2016: Diana Damsa – ‘It made me feel I counted’

The Winter Gathering of 2016 was a special experience for Diana Damsa – not just because she experienced Caux in winter, but also because, for the first time in eight years, she had no responsibilitie...

Philippe and Liseth Lasserre

2015: Lisbeth Lasserre – ‘The richness in art’

Lisbeth Lasserre came from Winterthur, where her grandparents, Hedy and Arthur Hahnloser, had built up a private collection of art at their home, Villa Flora. Amongst their artist friends were Bonnard...

Catherine Guisan

2014: Catherine Guisan – Europe’s Unfinished Business

Catherine Guisan is Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, USA. She has written two books on the ethical foundations of European integration. In 2014 she spoke at Caux’s first se...

Tom Duncan

2013: Tom Duncan – Restoring a healthy planet

2013 saw the first full-length Caux Dialogues on Land and Security (CDLS). These events, which took place at the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre, focus on the links between sustainable land managem...

Merel Rumping

2012: Merel Rumping – Going out on a limb

When Merel Rumping from the Netherlands first visited Caux in 2012, she had a goal in mind – ‘to explore how I could contribute to a more just world through my professional activities’....

Lucette Schneider

2011: Lucette Schneider – Choices which make the magic of Caux

For many years, Lucette Schneider from Switzerland organized the team which gathered in the early mornings to wash, peel and chop vegetables for the kitchens of the Caux conference centre. ...

Mohan Bhagwandas 2003

2010: Mohan Bhagwandas – Addressing the crisis of integrity

Mohan Bhagwandas is all too aware of his carbon footprint. In the 13 years from 2006 to 2019, he flew 17 times from his home city of Melbourne, Australia, to Switzerland to take part in the Caux confe...

Rajmohan Gandhi 2011 Caux Forum Human Security

2009: Rajmohan Gandhi – Bridges between India and Pakistan

25 distinguished Indians and Pakistanis came to Caux in 2009 with the aim of building bridges between their countries. The man who initiated the gathering was Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Ga...

Iman Ajmal Masroor

2008: Learning to be a Peacemaker – ‘An eye-opener to the world’

2008 saw the launch of an unusual course on Islam’s approach to peacemaking for young Muslims and non-Muslims, devised by Imam Ajmal Masroor from the UK. The course’s coordinator, Peter Riddell, descr...