A project to stimulate conversations about the trauma brought on by racial violence recently received a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council. 

Racial repair and reconciliation are the themes of the Founder’s Day Gathering Feb. 25, 2017, sponsored by the Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation, under the auspices of America’s Black Holocaust Museum. The project was awarded $10,000 from the WHC to help bring in a slate of speakers who will focus on emerging strategies for acknowledging and healing racial trauma. The project explores a number of questions: How should America commemorate some of the most disturbing chapters of our racial history? How might that commemoration help or hurt victims, perpetrators and bystanders. What role should our museums and institutions play in the work of memory and racial healing? These issues become extremely relevant in light of current events.

“Across our nation, diverse groups are coming together and finding creative ways to heal the wounds of history,” notes Dr. Fran Kaplan, who manages the Founder’s Day Gathering for America’s Black Holocaust Museum. “We are excited to bring ten presenters from around the country to share these innovative projects with the Greater Milwaukee community.”

This project falls under the guidelines of the WHC’s special focus on race and ethnicity. Recent events have raised a national call for a more consequential public discussion of the persistent social, economic, cultural, and racial issues that divide our communities. As part of that conversation, the WHC has a special interest in funding projects that engage in, or foster, meaningful community conversations about issues of race and ethnicity. For more information, see ABHM http://www.abhmuseum.org.