Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT)
TRHT is a comprehensive, national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. A primary focus of TRHT is jettisoning the deeply held, and often unconscious, beliefs that undergird racism: that a person’s or group’s inferiority or superiority is based on physical characteristics, race, ethnicity, or place of origin. This belief has fueled racism and conscious and unconscious bias throughout American culture.
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TRHT Selma was initiated in Selma in May 2017 with the Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) established as a TRHT grantee by funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. BBCF has joined forces with the Selma Center for Nonviolence as their programmatic place partner to implement the THRT process for Selma and Dallas County.
Our Five Main Focal Areas:
Narrative change: how to create a more complete and accurate narrative that will help people understand how racial hierarchy has been embedded in our society.
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Racial healing & relationship-building: how all of us can heal from the wounds of the past and build mutually respectful relationships across racial and ethnic lines.
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Separation/segregation: how to dismantle and transform the laws, policies, structures, habits, and biases that created and sustain separation.
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Economy: how to remove structured inequality and barriers to economic opportunities, and develop solutions that will create a more equitable society.
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Law: how the community recognizes the historical significance our system of law has played in perpetuating the hierarchy of human value.
THRT Accomplishments
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Over $100,000 grants to community organizations for TRHT-related purposes
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Over 300 people engaged for 3 annual National Day of Racial Healing events
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Over 7,000 boxes of fresh produce was given to the public in response to COVID-19 (Operation Fresh Food)
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Emergency COVID-19 community funds
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Mayoral 2020 forum & issues ballot
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3 community-led Design Teams operating monthly for over 2 years with over 50 participants over time
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Over 250 participants in racial equity training (Beyond Divide & Conquer: Unite & Build)
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Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation training
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Storytelling events (Narrative 4 & Tenx9)