Panel 23: Reconciliation through Conversations, History, and Communal Healing 

Panel 23: Reconciliation through Conversations, History, and Communal Healing
Moderator: Ms. Cydny A. Neville
Kerri Moseley-Hobbs and MaryLyle Buff, “The Reality of the Unfinished Business of Enslavement and Testing the Feasibility of Reconciliation”
The purpose of this presentation and discussion is to introduce preliminary observations of a case study on the feasibility of reconciliation regarding a history of enslavement. This case study is testing the feasibility of reconciliation between the Preston family, the name sake of William and Mary’s Preston Hall, Gov James Patton Preston who owned the plantation Smithfield (that today is Virginia Tech University) and the Fraction family who they enslaved by James Patton Preston and his descendants. In 2022, the MTAFF held an event in collaboration with Virginia Tech under their 1872 Forward schedule of events that commemorated VT 150 year history. The event focused on Virginia Tech campus’ history as a planation site, the complexity of addressing that history, and served as an extension of the MTAFF’s case study on the feasibility of reconciliation.
Shelley Viola Murphy, “Beyond the Records: Conversations with Descendants of Slave Owners in Genealogy”
Genealogists play a crucial role in unraveling the threads that connect the past to the present. This presentation aims to guide researchers in facilitating meaningful and respectful dialogues with descendants of slave owners, encouraging a deeper exploration of familial histories, beyond what is written in records and documents. In the ongoing journey of healing and reclamation, the act of uncovering the truths of the past, no matter how painful, holds the transformative power of understanding and reconciliation. The presentation aims to encourage a transformative journey where researchers, communities, and individuals can find healing through the shared endeavor of understanding and reclaiming history. By navigating conversations with sensitivity and depth, we open pathways to healing, allowing communities to reclaim lost narratives and foster a spirit of unity and mutual respect, demonstrating the healing potential in taking our time to understand and empathize with all facets of Black history.
Jenay Willis, “Texas Christian University's 150th Anniversary: Commitment, Compassion, & Communal Healing”
In 2020, Texas Christian University (TCU) established the Race & Reconciliation Initiative (RRI) amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and heightened police brutality killings (e.g., George Floyd) against Black individuals. The RRI was established to address the University’s history of racism, slavery, and the Confederacy. Having good intentionality in the establishment of such efforts was crucial to repair, rebuild, and retain genuine relationships between the TCU community and those from historically marginalized racial backgrounds affiliated with TCU. Considering the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing pandemics (i.e., classism, elitism, anti-Black racism), the focus of the RRI calls attention to answering the following: How did the coronavirus pandemic impact race and reconciliation work across universities, specifically considering TCU’s campus? In what ways have existing pandemics, such as anti-Black racism, impacted race and reconciliation work in TCU’s community? This session will address TCU’s 150th Anniversary in reconciling the past history to engage in reparative efforts.
Ervin L. Jordan Jr., “Campus of the Damned: Slave Families at the University of Virginia, 1818-1865” (Virtual)
How did slave families psychologically survive at educational institutions? This presentation will survey African-American slave families at the University Virginia (1817-1865) who astutely navigated campus perils during the Age of Slavery. Slaves provided a sense of comfort for white residents and visitors at the University’s pastoral Academical Village for half a century. Evocative of Jeffersonian architectural aesthetics these ‘semi-invisibles’ accommodations and workspaces were concealed by attics, cellars, kitchens, and high-walled backyard. Contemporaneous whites preferred the euphemism “servant” instead of “slave,” antebellum University images generally omitted them, and publications whitewashed its slaveholding and segregationist past. The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers (2020), reflecting remembrance, reconciliation and reparations, commemorates 4,000 slaves rented or owned by the University and faculty. Cole, Gibbons, Holmer, Skipwith, and Martin are among fifty slave families nameless no more. In accordance with the Symposium’s theme, and as a member of the University’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers Names Committee and formerly of the President’s Commission on Slavery and the University (and its “enslaved” versus “slave” debate), I will offer considerations for the memorialization of African-American enslavement at predominantly white American universities.