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A t any CTTT-RVA gathering, v irtual or in person, you can expect awesome folks and a robust serving of personal stories, with or without a shared meal. To ensure that we all leave nourished and acknowledged, we ask that you take a look at our  Touchstones .  These serve as a guide to progressive and constructive conversation. The Touchstones, combined with  Circle Process and the guidance of trained facilitators, support the creation of brave and safe space for authentic confidential sharing where intentional listening and vulnerability are valued. When we listen deeply or when we are heard, we feel valued. YOUR STORY, shared in small bites, is like a tasty meal we never want to forget! Thank you for your presence and see you at the table! ~~ Danita Rountree Green, Co-CEO of Coming To The Table - RVA
3rd Tuesday ONLINE Gathering via Zoom

Topic:   Freeing the Anti-Racist in You:
Commitments and Practices
Once again, your willingness to show up from the heart and DO THE WORK and BE THE WORK of racial justice and healing, with openness, humility, love and courage is what is creating this shift point in which we are living in. It takes a community of support to create lasting systemic and personal change together. We are grateful for your companionship on the journey. We are moving to our next steps on how to implement this new vision of a just society and will address these featured questions this 3rd Tuesday, July 21st 6:30 - 8:30 pm : 

  • Many commentators say that we are at a cultural turning point regarding race. This shift will require both individual and systemic change. What changes are occurring in your mind and heart? How are these reflected in the actions you are taking to create change in your world?  
  • "I wish I knew what to say when someone says...[something racially problematic]."
  • What practices have you adopted that help you in your journey to be an anti-racist?  

Please RSVP below as soon as possible, as we have limited spots and we will be closing registration the day before, on July 20th.
July 2020 Book Circle
(4th Thursdays)

Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights
by Dovey Johnson Roundtree
In  Mighty Justice , trailblazing African American civil rights attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree recounts her inspiring life story that speaks movingly and urgently to our racially troubled times. From the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, to the segregated courtrooms of the nation’s capital; from the male stronghold of the army where she broke gender and color barriers to the pulpits of churches where women had waited for years for the right to minister—in all these places, Roundtree sought justice. At a time when African American attorneys had to leave the courthouses to use the bathroom, Roundtree took on Washington’s white legal establishment and prevailed, winning a 1955 landmark bus desegregation case that would help to dismantle the practice of “separate but equal” and shatter Jim Crow laws. Later, she led the vanguard of women ordained to the ministry in the AME Church in 1961, merging her law practice with her ministry to fight for families and children being destroyed by urban violence. Join us on 7/23 at 6:30 - 8:30 pm on Zoom.
July 2020 Movie Circle
(4th Mondays)

The Long Shadow
"When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."
~Author unknown
When filmmaker and investigative journalist Frances Causey, a white daughter of the South, set out to explore the continuing racial division in the U.S, what she discovered was that the politics of slavery didn't end with the Civil War. In an astonishing candid look at the United States' original sin, The Long Shadow traces slavery's history from America's founding up through its insidious ties to racism today. We watch the movie at our leisure at home and then the CTTT movie discussion is scheduled via ZOOM for Monday, July 27, 2020 at 6:30 pm.
HIGHLIGHTED EVENTS
(RVA) : CTTT - RVA Event
(NAT): CTTT - National Event
(PRT) : Partner
Event

(ONLINE; Recorded)
CTTT Guided Meditation via   ZOOM
(NAT)

(ONLINE)
3rd Tuesday Conversation Gathering via ZOOM ( RVA)

(ONLINE)
4th Thursday Book Circle meeting via ZOOM (RVA)

(ONLINE)
Movie Circle meeting via ZOOM (RVA)
Race was intentionally constructed. Come join us and together let's deconstruct it even more intentionally!
Here's How YOU Can Continue to Make A Difference with CTTT-RVA.
Coming To The Table - RVA Receives 2020 Virginia Humanities Award
We are pleased to announce Coming To The Table - RVA has been named as one of the recipients of a grant from Virginia Humanities.   The grant award is $8,000 and we are in need of matching funds. Please let us know if your company or organization does charitable giving and can support this grant.

Our winning project is entitled, LINKED: Stories Crossing the Color Line - Linking Virginians through Blood, Purpose and Place . We are so excited and wanted to share the good news with our CTTT - RVA family. Below we have included the information page from the grant application. In the coming months, our production team will be working hard to bring this project to fruition. We can’t wait until you experience LINKED... through social media and hopefully, major media! Each month in our newsletter, we will feature a “linked pair”, chosen for our series. But in the meantime, please click to read on!
#Mask4TheTask
Buy a mask. Feed a family.
From Danita Rountree Green:

Last August, with the help of my CTTT - RVA family, I traveled to Ghana for the celebration of a lifetime. In the land of my ancestors, I found my tribe and made friends with inspiring talented artists now struggling with this new crisis. Africa has given us so much. Now she needs our help!

Not a handout, but a hand up! Artists in Accra, Ghana are at the task, making masks to save lives.  Each beautifully crafted mask will help support families in Accra, Ghana. Your contributions will enable us to feed families, provide educational supplies, internet and improve conditions at home. Your generous donation will save lives here and help the economy an ocean away.
  • A $15 donation will feed a family for a week.
  • A $25 donation will pay for internet and technology services for a month.
  • A $50 donation will provide food and medical services for those displaced by the virus.
Your generous donation will save lives here and help the economy an ocean away. Make your donation and I will send your mask(s) right away.  #Mask4TheTask.
CALL TO ACTION: Support Expansion of Brown v. Board of Education Scholarships
CTTT - RVA’s Reparations Circle has joined the front lines of the fight for racial equality and repairing what has been broken as a result of the lasting impact of the legacy of slavery. Our first action: providing support to the descendants of the students impacted by the closing of county and city schools in Prince Edward, Charlottesville, Norfolk, Warren and Arlington, where state public education funds were rescinded due to desegregation between 1954 and 1964. The Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Program  provides scholarships that may be used to cover the costs of required academic fees, in addition to tuition and textbooks already provided by state law, and graduate study at the masters and doctoral levels, as determined by the Awards Committee. We are seeking support from the Attorney General to amend the definition of an eligible “student” which was the primary reason why it was not extended to their descendants in the bill in 2009. The original proposal brought to the Governor and General Assembly by a resident of the Commonwealth included the children, as well as the grandchildren. This action requires no appropriation by the state as there are already funds remaining in the Brown Scholarship Fund that could be allocated for the children. The Reparations Circle is working on leading a “Write-in Campaign” to ask the Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Committee members and the General Assembly Chairs if they would extend the scholarships to the descendants of those denied access to public education during the 1954 - 1964 efforts to resist school integration... Click to read more.
I want more information on how I can take action to provide support on the this initiative!
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No
Take the Seed Initiative's Skills Survey
Members of CTTT - RVA,
We need your help and support! During this unprecedented time of civil unrest amidst a global pandemic, we must implement a new system for equality and economic growth for those who live on/below the margin. The pre-existing racial, social and economic inequalities have only been further exacerbated by the Pandemic.

The Social Education for Economic Development (SEED) Initiative was established to provide education, training and resources that produce economic growth for adults in Virginia. While the need was there long before Covid-19, it is more essential now that we prepare those adversely affected (mostly minorities), for a post Corona world. Here is how you can help... Click to read more.

Be Inspired to Make New Commitments As a Change Maker

The following are responses that were gathered at a recent 3rd Tuesday gathering via zoom, to highlight commitments made by members of CTTT - RVA to become aware of and dismantle personal prejudice and ESPECIALLY systemic and structural racism and oppression in the United States. This conversation and activity highlighted our fourth table leg of the CTTT approach:
TAKING ACTION to dismantle systems and structures of oppression in our world.  

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

I commit to Getting Out the Vote!

Moving forward, I will practice and teach the RACE Method [of David Campt] for engaging in conversation with people who have a different perspective than I do.

I commit to donate $100 by tomorrow to Coming To The Table - RVA!

I commit to updating the listing of African-American businesses.

I commit to being more intentional in my actions towards racial healing in the future. 

Talk with white friends and family; take care to stay grounded in spiritual practices; develop family-like loving relationship with at least one person who doesn’t look like me.

I will work to support living wages for all and to understand the zero sum game which is what makes some so resistant to fair wages.

I will be speaking up more and encouraging others to dialogue about social justice issues.

Moving forward I will help get resource lists ready to hand my white friends who say they don't know what to do.
 
I commit to writing my political representatives in support of change in the education and policing systems.

I commit to showing up and not remaining silent.
Volunteering with CTTT - RVA is a wonderful opportunity to get involved and connect with others. The work you contribute is always valued as we pursue our mission of a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past. We especially need those wanting to be trained and mentored as facilitators and we need some help behind the scenes with things like maintaining our mailing lists, for instance.
Featured Video And Articles
Check out the featured video and articles below to help further the conversation on racism and its impact.
Reflections on the movie American Son
by Midge Falconer
Midge Falconer is a beloved member of CTTT - RVA's Movie Circle. She participated in her first CTTT event in the spring of 2016. It was a program on race and religion and she was from an invited organization - Interfaith Community of Greater Richmond. She loved the CTTT process and became a member on the spot. As a member of the Baha'i Faith she believes there is one race - the human race. She also believes that the CTTT Movie Circle is a great space to explore the human experience in racially struggling America. She stated that the stories captured on film reveal our divided racial history, the heroes who raised the battle cry for justice, the sources of oppression, the victims, the ignorant, the innocent - all dramatized on the big screen. She further states that as we take in these stories we are given the opportunity to dialogue on all there is to discover and learn. To her, this is the true purpose of film - to tell remarkable stories that reveal truths and transform lives.
The Impact and Evolution of College Football Player Protest: Featuring CTTT-RVA Mem ber Clarence McGill
“Well, you’ve got a decision to make,” Greg Allen recalls his head coach telling him. “Do you wanna be Black, or do you wanna be a football player?”.... READ MORE
“The impatient idealist says: ‘Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.’ But such a place does not exist. We all have to stand on the earth itself and go with her at her pace.”

-- Chinua Achebe
Coming To The Table - RVA
July, 2020