‘Search for Common Ground’ to Honor Catalysts for Healing the Legacy of US Slavery

David Works, Shay Banks-Young and Julia Jefferson Westerinen are joining past award winners Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Ali in receiving the 2010 Common Ground Award.

For over a decade Search for Common Grounds (SFCG) has been conferring this award to honor achievements in conflict resolution, negotiation, community building, and Peacebuilding.

Works, Banks-Young and Westerinen will be recognized at 7:30 pm on Nov. 11 in the Grosvenor Auditorium of the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C., for their work in bridging racial divides by nurturing relationships among descendants of Thomas (Martha) Jefferson, and Sally Hemmings.

Works and Banks-Young have done much of their collaborative work under the auspices of Coming to the Table, a program of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Westeriner and Banks-Young have filled many auditoriums across the country sharing their stories and exploring how the legacy of slavery continues to have an impact on U.S. society.

For more information about this event please contact, Rachel Lyn Okun 202.777.2230 or  cgawards@sfcg.org. For more information about Coming to the Table, please contact Sha Jackson 540 432 4491 or cttt@emu.edu.