Tables of Conscience Fundraiser
Looking for a way to meet more Alexandrians who care about social and racial justice issues? Hungry for some meaty discussions? Then attend the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project’s Tables of Conscience fundraisers. These book/issue themed dinner parties will raise money for scholarships in the names of Joseph McCoy and Benjamin Thomas, lynched in Alexandria in 1897 and 1899, while building relationships across communities. The dinners, hosted in the homes of members of ACRP, will provide an opportunity to discuss a social justice themed book while getting to know fellow ACRP members better. Choose the dinner based on the book you wish to read and discuss! Please indicate at registration if you have any food allergies or strong preferences. Hosts will do their best to accommodate guests requests.
Reserve your tickets at The Alexandria Shop
January 13
Book: Slavery By Another Name, the Reenslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, By Douglas A. Blackmon SOLD OUT
This Pulitzer Prize winning history details how not long after the liberation of African Americans from bondage at the end of the Civil War, the new citizens were forced back into involuntary servitude. Journalist and University of Virginia Miller Center Forum Chair Blackmon reveals the stories of those who fought against the use of selective enforcement of laws and discriminatory sentencing to reenslave Black people during an “Age of Neoslavery'' brought about by the South’s exploitation of a clause in the 13th Amendment. He describes the way companies and governments profited by “leasing” the labor of those they accused and convicted of petty crimes. Alexandria used such labor to repair and build streets, alleys and sewers soon after the conservative democrats regained control of the local government in 1873.
February 3
Book: It's the Little Things, Everyday Interactions that Anger, Annoy and Divide the Races, By Lena Williams
Described as a “sounding board for Blacks and whites concerned with bridging the racial divide,” New York Times Journalist Lena Williams book is sometimes amusing and other times pointed. It is true we no longer live with legal segregation, but a divide between Black and white people still exists, even in Alexandria. We live near each other, but we generally do not have close relationships that cross the “color line” and even when we do, the dominant white culture can cause miscommunication that can generate anger. This frank, funny book helps us understand, and eliminate alarmingly common interactions that cause friction for both Black and white people.
February 10 SOLD OUT
Book: The Half That Has Never Been Told: Slavery and American Capitalism, by Edward E. Baptist.
Edward Baptist puts slavery at the very center of this nation’s political and economic past. Deemed a “radical new interpretation of history” this award winning book details how slavery grew the United States into a modern, industrial, capitalist nation. “In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire.” In the process of telling this story, Baptist humanizes those enslaved and shares the truth about the brutality they faced through the testimonies of survivors, politicians and entrepreneurs, as well as, plantation records and newspapers.