Beloved Community Grant Awarded to the Commission on Racial Justice and Reconciliation

As co-chairs of the Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission, we are thrilled to announce that the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has awarded our Commission a $15,000 Beloved Community Grant to support the Africatown Truth and Education Initiative (ATEI). The Commission is joining with the Rev. Dr. Robert E. DuBose Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopians, Joycelyn Davis and All Things Africatown, and the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Mobile, to promote recognition and awareness throughout the Episcopal Church of the history of the Clotilda and its descendants and of Africatown’s living community.

ATEI is a program that we are developing that will drive concrete and cultural change across faith, local, and civic spheres. For congregations and diocesan institutions, the project will produce curricular modules, liturgies, and pastoral resources for ongoing formation and worship; train more than 50 clergy and lay leaders in restorative justice and public-history practices; and support congregations that adopt remembrance services and new pastoral approaches to communal grief. For Africatown residents and Clotilda descendants, ATEI will center descendant leadership by amplifying testimony, supporting community-led programs, and advocating for reparative investments. For schools, museums, municipal bodies, and other faith organizations, ATEI will distribute educational materials, host public events, and model truth-to-power work that shifts narratives, practices, and resource flows.

The Commission thanks the Executive Council for this Beloved Community Grant and praises the partners whose leadership and lived experience make this initiative possible. ATEI will demonstrate how the Episcopal Church can lead truth-to-power work that transforms systems, cultural norms, and resource flows while fostering healing and accountability.

We invite congregations, educators, and community members to engage with ATEI through workshops, resource-sharing, and upcoming events that will center descendant-led testimony and historical scholarship.

You will be seeing much more about our plans in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you would like more information, please contact either of us.

Joe McDaniel, mcdanieljoe43@yahoo.com, (415) 225-9066

Valerie Mitchell, valerie.mitchell@saadhealthcare.com, (251) 533-6000

From Bishop Kendrick: I am deeply grateful to The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council for this Beloved Community Grant, which affirms the faithful and courageous work of our Commission on Racial Justice & Reconciliation and our partners in Africatown. The Africatown Truth and Education Initiative invites all of us — congregations, clergy, and laity — to learn, listen, and tell the truth about our shared history. Through this work, we have the opportunity to walk together in Christ’s way of healing, hope, and reconciliation, participating in God’s work of justice and repair. I am especially proud of the Commission’s leadership and the partnership that makes this transformative initiative possible.