Circle Up for Racial Healing
Coming to the Table will host its 2025 National Gathering in St. Paul, uniting descendants of enslaved people and enslavers in a shared space of truth-telling and trauma healing. With roots in restorative justice and circle process, the event centers embodied healing and discomfort as essential tools for racial reconciliation.
On the heels of Juneteenth and at a time of deep division and generational pain, Coming to the Table, a national racial healing organization, will hold its 2025 National Gathering in St. Paul from June 12 to 15, drawing participants from across the country into a shared space of truth-telling, reconciliation and repair.
Founded in 2006, Coming to the Table (CTTT) brings together descendants of both enslaved people and enslavers. The work is rooted in restorative justice, circle process, historical reckoning, and trauma healing.
“There are a lot of white folks that come to the table because they feel guilty about their family’s past,” said Tom DeWolf, co-manager of CTTT and author of “Inheriting the Trade.”
“If guilt brings you to the table, that’s fine. Now how do you get over yourself so you can actually do the work?”
DeWolf said about 65% of members are white, often older, but the organization has a significantly higher proportion of Black members than the national average. Still, many Black participants disengage after a time, he said, frustrated by white members’ emotional processing.
“That’s why we center trauma healing,” said Dr. Giavanni Washington, who is transitioning in behind DeWolf, who is off to retirement. “Guilt is in the body. Trauma is in the body. And until we understand that, we’ll keep missing each other.”
Both DeWolf and Washington have trained in Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR), a program developed after the Sept. 11 attacks to support survivors and responders through embodied healing. They say its global framework is central to the gathering’s approach.
The St. Paul location is intentional. Though past gatherings were held in Virginia, where the organization was born, CTTT has shifted to regional rotations. Following its 2023 event in Oakland, Minnesota was chosen for its active local chapters and its legacy of both racial harm and justice work.
“We recognize the social justice fire that exists in Minneapolis,” Washington said, pointing to the Rondo neighborhood, the police killings of Philando Castile and George Floyd, and broader movements for Black and Native liberation.
“Place matters,” echoed DeWolf.
The gathering opens with a sacred sites tour led by Jim Bear Jacobs of the Minnesota Council of Churches. A Native cultural educator, Jacobs will guide participants through key locations across the Twin Cities, examining the deep ties between land, memory and violence.
Throughout the four-day event, the circle process will shape most discussions. In this Indigenous-rooted model, participants speak one at a time as a symbolic “talking piece” is passed, encouraging listening over reaction.
“There’s something that happens when someone says something that offends you, and you have to sit on your hands and listen anyway,” Washington said. “Circle builds your muscle for discomfort. It teaches you discernment.”
To prevent escalation during difficult conversations, CTTT incorporates “mindful moments” before sessions and offers community agreements, known as “touchstones.” These include practices like confidentiality, bringing one’s whole self, and the use of “ouch and oops” language to name and address harm.
“It may sound woo-woo,” DeWolf said of the mindfulness exercises, “but they work. We haven’t had a blowup at a national gathering since we started them.”
Coming to the Table’s work is grounded in four pillars: uncovering history, making connections, healing trauma, and taking action to dismantle racism. While some critics ask for more direct activism, Washington and DeWolf emphasize that internal healing is necessary for sustainable change.
“Coming to the table is easy,” DeWolf said. “Staying at the table is the hard part, and the most important part.”
They agree that the impact of this work is growing reconciliation fostered through truth, unity, accountability, and most importantly, healing.
Registration for the 2025 National Gathering is open through June 11. For more information, visit www.comingtothetable.org.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.