This month Hope in the Cities and the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities launched a region-wide project aimed at provoking discussion about new policy options to address poverty and structural inequity in metropolitan Richmond. Forty people took part in a weekend training as presentators of “Unpacking the 2010 Census: The New Realities of Race, Class and Jurisdiction."

Ben Campbell wastes no time in naming hard truths in his new book, Richmond’s Unhealed History. It opens in 1607 with Captain Christopher Newport and his men arriving at the fall line of what is now the James River. They "planted the seed of a great nation with unprecedented opportunity for all human beings; they also planted seeds of economic exploitation, racial discrimination, a hierarchical class system, and a heretical version of Christianity….”

"Why spend the day talking about trust?" asks Walter Rice, a senior U.S. District Court judge in Dayton, Ohio. "Because nothing less than the future viability of this community – economically, socially, and politically – is at stake."

Recently, I attended a memorial service in the 4000 block of South Capitol Street in Southeast Washington, DC. There, roughly one year ago, bullets were fired from a moving vehicle into a crowd of young people. Nine were hit. Four died. They had gathered after attending the funeral of Jordon Howe. Jordan was struck and killed by a bullet fired from an AK 47 assault rifle only a few days earlier (by the same assailants). The victims were all black. The suspects: black. The community – Southeast DC – predominantly black.

H. Alexander Wise was elected to the Initiatives of Change Board of Directors at its Annual Meeting in February. Alex has led a varied life as educator, public servant, lawyer, and social entrepreneur. Since 2007 he has been the director of development of St. George's Independent School in Memphis,TN which has forged a new model for independent schools that seek to diversify their constituencies.

Thirty Richmond community leaders have formed a new Hope in the Cities Council to provide a space for networking, sharing of concerns and insights, and exploration of opportunities for honest conversation on critical issues.

In 1972 Cleiland Donnan decided to be part of the solution to racial division in Richmond. It was an unlikely choice for someone who spent their life teaching the fox trot and social graces to the children of Richmond’s affluent West End.

Em 18 de Janeiro, o mundo homenageia a visão de Martin Luther King de construir pontes em meio às divisões raciais.

"Esperança nas Cidades tem apresentado um mapa para o futuro", diz o ex-governador da Virgínia, Tim Kaine em seu prefácio para o livro “Construção de Confiança: uma conversa honesta sobre raça, reconciliação e responsabilidade”, de Rob Corcoran, publicado este mês pela gráfica da Universidade da Virgínia.

In 1963, Martin Luther King called for a day when “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”