good morning. welcome to mosaic. this is black history month. back then it was only one week in 1926. and in 1976 it became a movement and it's been a month ever since. i came across this saying about martin luther king, jr. that i think applies to all history. whatever work that you have, do it well. do your work so well that the living, the dead and the unborn will not do it better. a part of our history is the history of legacy of slavery

and aftermath. today we have two persons at our table that are trying to deal with the legacy and aftermath of slavery, tony battle and holly fulton. great to have you both. some people have said when they knew you were coming on the program that it takes a lot of courage to look in the past and deal with the aftermath and the legacy. tell us what welcome to the table is all about? >> we consider ourselves a branch of a national group called coming to the table. we are the oakland group and the national coming to the table community is now a nonprofit. it's all about bringing together descendants of slaves or slave holderrors traders to coming to the for healing processes, anything around dialogue and talking about and healing together around our legacy and our history. so our group that meets monthly

does that. we coming to the in a circle in oakland. and tony and i cofacilitate the group together. >> how did you meet? >> we met a year ago this month. we were attending a screening of a film around white privilege in a break outsession. we began speaking and we talked about some of our different backgrounds and she knew some of my work was in the field of diversity and training and if a facilitation. and she told me that she moved here recently and she would like to start a chapter locally. and i went home that evening and it really stayed heavy on my heart and mind. my heart is with social justice work and the legacy that i have in my family. and woke up the next day and called her and i said i would

like to extend out to you and want to partner with you in this work. and she was pleasantly surprised. and probably within less than four weeks the chapter was birthed. and in april we had our first meeting. it's been monthly ever since. >> people have said it takes a lot of courage to talk about that. what has been some of the challenges coming together as a group and sharing your stories and being open like that? >> i would say for myself what i have seen is the challenge of both blacks and whites being willing to have the difficult conversations. so to share and be raw and vulnerable but around here's my legacy and here's what is happening to me today and knowing how that will be received, if it will be dismissed simply because it's

not that other person's experience or there may be a genuine want to not just understand but have an open heart about it, no uncomfortable the conversation may be. >> i find predominating feelings, if you will, that come up for the different races with the white race. i can speak for myself, of course, around that is fear and shame, having to do with this history. and we have gotten into some heavy duty discussions about those two. and there have been times where we have been confronted, by we, i mean white people, in terms of let's get talking about this and address the fears. >> i know the two you meet about two others that deal with i don't know the fear. >> yes. >> so i'm glad to hear that you're meeting with that. >> it's a perfect location for

us to hold our meetings. >> that is great. we'll talk more about that in the next segment. thank you for being with us. please join us in the next segment with welcome to the table.

we talk about the day that he looks -- looked at descendants coming together to

be at the table. and therefore the name coming to the table came out from that. >> i heard in my ear there must be some challenging discussions. are there any fisticuffs? >> no. >> there has been any fisticuffs. but i have not heard that word in a long time. but there have been, yes, times where people get upset and raise their voice. but even in the midst of that, we were still able to have dialogue so a perfect example of that will be one of our members actually, the last meeting, just simply shareing that in order for him to be able to speak from here, he needed some members to get out of here. and he shared some of their experiences growing up and he shared his truth and be able to trust that his truth will be

respected. >> your story, telling your story vital to your group. how do you go about doing that? >> one process is that we have done in our group and we don't always do the same process. we have done different formats in our meeting. but we sit in a circle. and we have a talking piece that we pass around. and you only speak while you're holding on to the talking piece. and this is a tradition among very old cultures using a talking piece. and everybody listens to people's stories or sharings whatever they want to or need to share. and tony has spoke tonight group about that history. >> mentioned the circle earlier. >> yes. the circle is significant. and many groups operate out of circle. but sometimes they don't snow a lot of the history around the circle. and that is significant to the civil rights movement n african-

american culture, the circle was used many times to strategize the movement. so they had circle meetings in their house in the living room sitting in circles to discuss the movement. prior to that, even as slaves, circle was always. >> so everyone has a chance to talk? >> everyone has a chance to talk, but within the circles, the purpose of circle is culture and history and representative of the beginning and ending of life and it also is the core of the people. >> i see. >> so the storytelling is very significant because it honors the ancestors. there's a black south saying that says how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. how is someone going understand my journey without sharing my story of my ancestors and why my perspective may be the way it is. >> when you meet, you have a

certain format? >> yes. we start with reading the vision and the mission of the coming to the table group and the vision is, the vision for the united states of a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past from slavery and the many forms of racism it spawned. and the mission is coming to the table providing leadership, resources and a supportive environment for all that wish to acknowledge and heal wounds from racism that is root in the united states slavery. and some people have wanted to join the group that don't know about their ancestry or i don't have any ancestry involved in slavery? of course. but that is not the case in

every group. there are other groups that are meet in the united states at other location. >> so it's critical to note history and hopefully some healing take place and some connecting and then some action? >> yes. >> and we want to talk more about that, the action and all of it, actually. but do you feel in nearly a year that you've met that some healing has taken place? >> i do. there were some hesitant about sharing or even speaking up or speaking out and to watch how some of them now take charge of discussion and jump right in. and say you know what, this will sound stupid, but i need to say this or hold on, i need to share this, what i'm feeling or i'm receive when you go say

a, b, c, d and before you would not see where that happened. >> let's come back to that. that is a great point. join us in our next segment.

turning a 20-foot wall into a canvas takes vision. so will getting into college. i've got what it takes. so do you.

welcome back to come to the table. i heard about your film two or three years ago and traces of the tray. tell us about that? >> thank you for asking. traces of the trade is a documentary film that i made with nine of my cousins. there was a lot of other people involved. but a group of ten us that are descendants of the largest slave trading family in rhode island. we took a trip in 2001 and we

traced the slave ancestors. and we went to rhode island to africa to cuba back up to rhode island and retracing the triangle and meeting with experts and scholars on the slave trading and slavery. we were at sundance film festival and it was on television. it's being used in many classrooms and corporate seminar across the country to make people more aware of the legacy of the slave trade and it's opened a lot of doors of discussion that need to happen around awareness of this history and the impact still today. >> we find ourselves divided still it seems. >> absolutely. >> and sometimes it's based on economics, sometimes on race. how do you see that in terms of the film and in terms of what you're trying to do? >> i see the film as an opportunity for dialogue and

also for actually seeing slavery through the eyes of a white family that is willing to put out there, guess what our family was the largest slave holding family of 10,000 africans. we traded 10,000 africans. that is usually something that you say from a white person willing to put up on the big screen and it tells their story. it's a different story than coming from a black family. however, it also sheds light on just some of the pieces missing in telling the story. in the legacy project, ideal with at risk of youth, it created dialogue within young people around, we don't hear about certain stories in our history classes. we were discussing this film and also other films and lynching history and other pieces for many of the students that were like, we don't get to

have this discussion and they go out in the community and malicious your dialogue themselves -- and initiate dialogue themselves. >> i asked you about the film and the movies and how that impacts the aftermath and the legacy. how do you see film and in telling the story on film? how impact full do you feel that is? >> i think it's extremely impact full. people like to see movies. and one of the movies that has been very controversial and a lot of people have been talking about is the help. we were hoping that when we did traces of the trade that it would a vehicle, a tool to get people to talk and it has been. and i think movies is one of the very good and usable and successful tools to open the door for more dialogue and conversation and processes that those sometimes very difficult and very heavy are very needed

and important for healing processes around our histories. and did you some media work also? >> yes. >> how did you realize that? >> i some producing for a living some years ago. and doing my work with at risk of group, my program is called the legacy project right here in san francisco. it's mainly with seventh through 12th grade. and the power of the people is around the story telling, getting the story out there and history. and you get people to ask questions and in some cases going back to the family and having the stories told. and in addition to that, i also worked with some students in south africa, students out of townships from elite schools and they're doing the work

around what happened in apartheid. so we're looking at our history and the history there. >> they had to deal with truth and reconciliation. >> yes. >> we just touched the surface, wouldn't you say? >> i would say so. in south africa, they're having the dialogue out in the open nationally, in houses out in the street. they have the conversations that hear in the u.s. america doesn't really want to have. it happened a long time ago. what does it have to do with now? it has everything to do with now. but if we don't discuss it and have dialogue and address sis seem mickish -- sis -- social issues. >> i firmly agree with everything that she's saying. and one topic that does not get

addressed -- two topics that don't get address, but the top picks of white privilege and white supremesy. that term makes people go, that is not the case anymore. you don't think that is around my more, do you? frankly, i do. and i've learned a lot about it since doing the film, traces of the trade. but these are topics for dialogue that i feel are strongly needed that is one of the many reasons why i'm involved in this group. whether it's my and says try -- and ancestry or not -- >> i remember the old history classes, was it race or economics they called slavery? it seems like it was a combination of both.

>> absolutely. >> you can't ignore that. >> -- we'll come back with our next segment and wrap it up. please join us.

welcome back to the table again. we've been talking to holly and tony. tell us about the national organization coming to the table that is going to have a national meeting in march. >> yes, in richmond, virginia. there will be 60 of us for a national gathering. and we'll be coming from all over the country and having different breakout sessions and workshops.

the list of titles of workshops is very juicy and there will be difficult to pick four from the group. >> tell us about chicago. we thought that was significant. >> as part of legacy project and also in regards to welcome to the table, holly actually came along with me and my students, there were about ten of us, in the port chicago memorial site. some don't know about it. port chicago was significant to world war ii and 200 servicemen during an explosion were killed there. >> where is it? >> bay point. and port chicago helped desegregate the u.s. armed forces. some of the survivors were present and able to provide their oral history and stories.

we're hoping some of the work with welcome to the table will be able to partner with port chicago in regards to help push them to get the charges taken off the soldier. >> beginning to tell the story and heal the wounds and being able to connection and the action. >> yes. >> so it's not just talking and being in a group. >> action is very important, absolutely. >> any last words to those that are listening to us in ways that we can be supportive and involved? should we go to the website? >> we don't have it yet we're a young group. i would encourage to check the website comingtoto thetable.org. people are wanting to research

their history. >> will that revive us? >> that story was so significant because it was the first time put out there to all of america the legitimacy of the descendants of slaves. so the stories are very significant. one thing that i'm trying really get out too is getting in contact with families that are descendants of lynchers or descendants of those that were lynched. i have a lynching history in my family and hope this bring dialogue with that around our. >> of course you've been great to have you -- you've been great to have you as guests. this has been welcome to the table. i thought of the dr. carter gene woodson -- actually carver, the scientist and his

words that i'd like to leave with you. he said how far we go in life depends on us being kind to the young, compassionate to the aged and sympathetic to the striving and tolerant of the week and the strong because all of us, all of us at some point in our life be all of these. thank you for joining us. i'm ron -- ron swisher. see you next week.