In February 2022, QC Family Tree, in partnership with the Coalition for Truth and Reconciliation, wrote a Community Conversation Guide to be used alongside the report on Systemic Racism in Mecklenburg County Government written by the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Since then, QC Family Tree has trained facilitators to lead community conversations. In March and April of this year, 13 trained facilitators have led more than 20 conversations that have engaged more than150 people across Mecklenburg County.
These Community Conversations have offered an opportunity for participants to engage the materials and to begin taking steps toward repair. Some conversation groups have chosen to meet multiple times in order to take a deeper dive into each sector of the report, meeting to thoroughly discuss systemic racism within our county’s policing, politics, education, and infrastructure/health systems. Other groups are coming together to devise plans for collective action.
QC Family Tree encouraged these groups to send letters of feedback to Mecklenburg County Commissioners. We provided a letter template to facilitators as a resource. One conversation group, consisting of thirty participants, co-wrote a collective letter. You can find the letter linked here.
As a supplement, QC Family Tree offered walking history tours of Uptown Charlotte which explored particular places and events shaped by systemic racism in our city’s history. Approximately 75 people have participated in the walking history tours. QC Family Tree continues to offer groups the opportunity to schedule a walking history tour using this link.
QC Family Tree also has a mobile museum- a set of 7 banners- to use as a visual companion to the guide and report. Please email helms@qcfamilytree.org if you would like to borrow this resource.
QC Family Tree is a nonprofit organization that does cultural organizing in Charlotte and beyond. As cultural workers, our staff rely on people supporting our programs in order to sustain the organization. If you are interested in QC Family Tree facilitation, please consider how you might be able to support the organization financially. Our suggested minimum contribution is $250 per event. If that amount creates a hardship for you, please contact us and we will work with you to find a way to do this work together.
Details about the upcoming events are coming soon. Follow us on social media @qcfamilytree, stay tuned to updates on our linktree https://linktr.ee/qcfamilytree .
