Trustbuilding: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility

"Trustbuilding, using personal narrative and exhaustive reporting by Rob Corcoran, chronicles how Hope in the Cities has moved what looked like an immoveable barricade. The job is not done, but Hope in the Cities has provided a map for the future."—from the foreword by Governor Tim Kaine

The national director of Initiatives of Change and founder of Hope in the Cities, Rob Corcoran has been involved in promoting dialogue and conflict reconciliation among diverse and polarized racial, ethnic, and religious groups in an array of locales in Europe, South Africa, India, and the United States for over thirty years. Trustbuilding is part historical narrative and part handbook for a model of dialogue and community change that has been adopted both nationally and internationally. At its center is the story of how Richmond, Virginia, a former slave market, capital of the Confederacy, and leading proponent of Massive Resistance, has become a seedbed for inter-racial dialogue and trustbuilding with national and international implications. In 1993, this conservative southern city caught the attention of the nation with a public acknowledgment of its painful history and a call for "an honest conversation on race, reconciliation, and responsibility." City and county residents of all backgrounds launched an unprecedented and sustained effort to address the "toxic issue of race." Known as Hope in the Cities, this endeavor is now in its second decade of work. Trustbuilding should extend its important mission by carrying Richmond's story to communities everywhere.