Juneteenth Summit

We are just one week away from the inaugural Truth and Conciliation Juneteenth Summit with a stellar line-up of presenters that will lead us through extremely critical conversations in our journey to reckon with and dismantle racism in the United States. This summit is a work of Spirit, critical consciousness and intentional actions that you will not want to miss. Register here if you have not already done so and encourage others to register with you.

*Note: Scholarship opportunities are available for those in need. Please email info@truthandconciliation.org if you need financial assistance to attend the summit.

In just two weeks the Truth and Conciliation Commission will host its inaugural Juneteenth Summit and we are beyond excited. Much planning has gone into crafting an experience that will educate, inspire and transform our individual and collective work towards dismantling racism in the U.S. So, if you have not yet registered, register here today!

If you still need encouraging, take a look at why others are joining us for the summit June 16-18, 2021.

The feelings of deep sadness and despair at the direction in which our country has been moving over the last four years have me searching for meaning and understanding. I want to know how to be an antiracist. I want to know how to move this country forward. I want to know how to engage with others.I want to know how to mend fences. I want to value every human for their worth. I want to be educated by people who know and have experience. These are the reasons I am anxious to participate in the Truth
and Conciliation Event.
–Nancy May, Colorado Springs, CO

In my Christian tradition, I see examples of covenants that bind people and God together. Those covenants came after an acknowledgment that something was broken. Our community is broken. Our path towards a better future needs to be similar to the covenants of old. We need to acknowledge what is broken. As Jesus invites us into a new humanity, we need to know the truth because it will set us free (John 8:32). I am participating in the Truth & Conciliation Juneteenth Summit because I am yearning for our community to be set free, especially as we come to our 150th anniversary as a city. This work will be hard. I will not be pretending that I am free of racism. Instead, I will be participating because I want to combat racism – in all of its forms. 

–Rev. Dr. Jonathan B. Hall

Senior Pastor, First Christian Church (DOC), Colorado Springs, CO

*Note: Scholarship opportunities are available for those in need. Please email info@truthandconciliation.org if you need financial assistance to attend the summit.

One year ago today, I woke up unable to stop crying. Yes, it had been some hours, almost a full day, before my mind, body, and spirit aligned to allow me the ability to release and feel the horror and shock of George Floyd being so heinously murdered. Unlike others, the back-to-back killings of Ahmed Aubrey, Breonna Taylor and countless other Black Americans before George Floyd had left me numb, unable to process and in a state of emotional paralysis. But when the floodgates opened, I was inconsolable. Dear God, what had Black Americans done to be hunted and publicly killed in such a way for generations?

Thank goodness for friends who understand the spiritual journey to justice and liberation that Indigenous, Black, and Brown people have been on since the establishment of the colonies in this land! After talking with Rep. Cori Bush, who was then still running her race to become the first African American Congresswoman from the state of Missouri but who cut her political activist teeth during the Ferguson resistance movement, the idea and seeds for the Truth and Conciliation Commission were born.

Americans as a society have never truly faced the white racial violence embedded in the very fabric of our being. And I was initially emotionally stifled from releasing the grief of Floyd’s death because I spiritually and emotionally knew that we would continue to live in this grotesque pain cycle and see the lives of Black Americans stolen in a never-ending, state-sanctioned loop if we did not do something to collectively face the truth. Calls for “healing,” “restitution,” and even “re-conciliation” are meaningless and unproductive if we never address the root cause of the dis-ease in our nation. This is the mission of the grassroots movement for a Truth and Conciliation Commission in this country, which formally launched less than a month after the murder of George Floyd.

In just a few short weeks, from June 16-18th we will host our inaugural summit to share with others across the country the need for such reckoning with our racist past and present that’s impeding our future. Our work is not designed to paralyze one another with guilt or shame, but to hold each other sacredly accountable for the future we allow to be created by addressing what has kept us from the fullness of our humanity. We hope that you will join us in this journey and work. Register here today and bring someone along with you.

*Note: Scholarship opportunities are available for those in need. Please email info@truthandconciliation.org if you need financial assistance to attend the summit.

In African and Indigenous practices creativity is essential to transformation. As such, we are excited to announce that world renowned poet and healer Norma Johnson is joining us for our Juneteenth Inaugural Summit!

Norma Johnson is a spiritual healer, poetic storyteller and inspirationalist. She brings a creative background into her distinctive presentation form of activism and education as she presents and facilitates across a dynamic range of organizations, institutions, faith communities, educational forums and more. Her work opens space for inquiry, reflection and dialogue and her poetry about race is used enthusiastically by educators across the country. Noted Ghanaian novelist & philosopher, Kwei Armah says, “Healers are just awakeners of a people who have slept too long.” Indeed, Norma’s storytelling inspires that awareness and insight and the power we have to bring paths of healing to our future.

Don’t miss this timely summit! Register now at http://bit.ly/TCCSummit.

NOTE: One registration covers access to all three summit days regardless of which date you choose. 

For sponsorship opportunities, please visit http://bit.ly/TCCSponsorship or click below.

We are just two months away from the inaugural Truth and Conciliation Juneteenth Summit; have you registered yet? We are planning an amazing opportunity for attendees to connect with national thought-leaders on anti-racism and social justice work. Don’t miss out. Joining us will be Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington. 

Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington, Pronouns (He/Him/His) is the President & Founder of the Washington Consulting Group (WCG). WCG was named by the Economist as one of the Top 10 Global Diversity Consultants in the world. Dr. Washington has served as an educator, administrator, and consultant for over 37 years. He serves as an invited instructor in the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the President and Co-Founder of the Social Justice Training Institute and a Past President of the American College Personnel Association.  

Dr. Washington serves as the Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church of Baltimore and is an Elder in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement.  He is the 2021 recipient of the NASPA Dr. Booby Leach, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Leadership Award, and the ACPA Esther Lloyd Jones, Outstanding Service to the Profession of Student Affairs and Higher Education Award.

Known as the “The Engagement Specialist,” He sees himself as an instrument of change.  He works every day to help people find the best in themselves and others. He lives by the words of one of his favorite song, (sung by the late Mahalia Jackson at the funeral or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr):

“If I can help somebody, as I pass along; if I can cheer somebody, with a word or song;if I can show somebody, that he, she, zi or they, are traveling wrong, then my living shall not be in vain.”

Don’t miss this timely summit! Register now at http://bit.ly/TCCSummit.

NOTE: One registration covers access to all three summit days regardless of which date you choose. 

For sponsorship opportunities, please visit http://bit.ly/TCCSponsorship or click below.

As we gear up for the inaugural Truth and Conciliation Junetenth Summit (June 16-18, 2021), each week we are revealing our phenomenal presenters who will join us. Our first distinguished guest is Mark Charles, a former 2020 candidate for U.S. President. 

Mark Charles is a speaker, writer, and consultant. The son of an American woman (of Dutch heritage) and a Navajo man, Mark teaches the complexities of American history regarding race, culture, and Christendom in order to help forge a path of healing and conciliation for the nation. In 2012, Mark hosted a public reading at the US Capitol of the buried apology to Native peoples in the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill given by the 111th Congress. He is the co-author of the book, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, and he authors the blog Reflections from the Hogan. He is a co-founder of the Would Jesus Eat Frybread? college-conference series and has served on the boards of the Christian Reformed Church of North America and the Christian Community Development Association. In 2020, Mark ran as an independent candidate for the presidency of the United States, advocating for a Truth and Conciliation Commission – a formal and national dialogue on issues of race, gender, and class.

Don’t miss this amazing summit! Register now at http://bit.ly/TCCSummit

NOTE: One registration covers access to all three summit days regardless of which date you choose. 

For sponsorship opportunities, please visit http://bit.ly/TCCSponsorship or click below.