Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade
DeWolf and Morgan met through their interest in a group aimed at racial reconciliation but didn’t automatically take to each other. Eventually, DeWolf, a descendent of slave traders and owners (Inheriting the Trade, 2009), saw in opinionated Morgan the ideal companion to help him delve into the trauma of America’s racial history and prospects for recovery. Morgan, descended from enslaved Africans, founded the website Our Black Ancestry. For four weeks, the two traveled through 21 states, Washington, D.C., and the Caribbean, tracing their individual heritages and the common experience of race in America. They visited one another’s families and childhood homes and traced the path of race history through Southern plantations and civil rights movement sites, all while exploring how their friendship evolved “within the context of racial reconciliation.” In their search to become conscious of learned attitudes about race and to work to change them, Morgan struggles with racial anger and deep distrust of whites, while DeWolf confronts long unexamined white privilege, and both share the pain, joy, and exhaustion of a demanding and healing journey. --Vanessa Bush