History as Catalyst for Civic Dialogue offers an inside look at three compelling projects that mined hidden, forgotten, or suppressed histories of slavery and lynching in the United States in order to stimulate meaningful dialogue about persistent issues of race and marginalization. The Slave Galleries Restoration Project at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church (implemented with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum) engaged neighborhood residents in dialogue about issues of marginalization in Manhattan’s Lower East Side by tapping the power of the church’s hidden rooms, once used to segregate African Americans from the rest of the church. Traces of the Trade, a documentary film by Katrina Browne with dialogues about white privilege, shifts attention to the lesser-known history of the North’s role in the slave trade, as explored through stories of both the filmmaker’s slave-trading ancestors and her present-day descendents as they reckon with their history. The Andy Warhol Museum’s Without Sanctuary Project engaged regional audiences in dialogue about race and bigotry through an extensive project centered around 19th and 20th century photos and postcards illustrating lynching in the United States.

History as Catalyst for Civic Dialogue offers an inside look at three compelling projects that mined hidden, forgotten, or suppressed histories of slavery and lynching in the United States in order to stimulate meaningful dialogue about persistent issues of race and marginalization. The Slave Galleries Restoration Project at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church (implemented with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum) engaged neighborhood residents in dialogue about issues of marginalization in Manhattan’s Lower East Side by tapping the power of the church’s hidden rooms, once used to segregate African Americans from the rest of the church. Traces of the Trade, a documentary film by Katrina Browne with dialogues about white privilege, shifts attention to the lesser-known history of the North’s role in the slave trade, as explored through stories of both the filmmaker’s slave-trading ancestors and her present-day descendents as they reckon with their history. The Andy Warhol Museum’s Without Sanctuary Project engaged regional audiences in dialogue about race and bigotry through an extensive project centered around 19th and 20th century photos and postcards illustrating lynching in the United States.