Monday evening, the Jefferson School's African-American Heritage Center hosted a Community Conversation to talk about Saturday's violence in the city, and how to move forward. WMRA's Marguerite Gallorini was there.
KAREN WATERS-WICKS: I want to start by just asking us all to just have a moment of silence, and to reflect on the lives that were lost.
The Heritage Center in Charlottesville organized a Community Conversation, moderated by Karen Waters-Wicks. The panelists came from various organizations, such as the Office of Human Rights, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Monuments ad Memorials for the City of Charlottesville, Black Lives Matter, and from the City's Clergy Collective. The evening revolved around coming together as a community; discussing how to help children of color succeed in school; and about making it clear that White Nationalists are not welcome in the city of Charlottesville. Then, a surprise followed.
WATERS-WICKS: We are going to ask you to do some work. We're going to break you into small groups, we're going to pass out pens and papers, and what this night is all about is understanding where we have been, but more importantly, hearing from you about where you want to go. What do we need to do next.
This sparked lively conversations about the weekend's events, between people who all needed to share their stories in the process of finding peace. Some of the recommendations of the night: compiling stories so as to know what truly happened; and reaching out to minorities to ask them how we can better help, as a larger community.