Cousins: Reaching Across the Racial Divide

• Date and Time: 3/1/2022 at 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
• ONLINE
• Member Benefit
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• Cousins: Connected Through Slavery - What happens when a White woman, Phoebe, contacts a Black woman, Betty, saying she suspects they are connected through slavery? The answer is revealed as they tell the dramatic story of their meeting, sharing of family histories, and search for reconciliation - from Betty's experience desegregating her county's only high school to Phoebe's eventual question to Betty: "How do I begin to repair the harms?"

  Show Description

• Presenter Biographies:

  Dr. Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin grew up in rural Culpeper and Warren counties, Virginia. She was a pioneer in school desegregation. Thanks to her father’s determination, she entered and graduated from Warren County High School after suing the school board, based on the landmark Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954. Betty started her employment as a factory worker and climbed the corporate ladder to achieve executive management employment. Betty holds a BA in Business Management from Shenandoah University, an MBA from Nova University, and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Shenandoah University. After she retired, she wrote and published her autobiography, Wit, Will & Walls. Betty speaks frequently with Phoebe about making connections across the racial divide to create a more just and peaceful world.

  Phoebe Kilby grew up in Baltimore, MD. After obtaining a BS in Botany and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management from Duke University, she had a long career as an urban and environmental planner. With concerns about the morality and wisdom of war, Phoebe went back to school in 2003 to obtain a degree in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University. A descendant of enslavers, Phoebe was inspired by the Coming to the Table movement to connect with descendants of persons her family enslaved. She is dedicated to helping others, European Americans and African Americans together, to uncover and explore the truths of their experiences and move toward racial reconciliation.