Fall / Winter 2006

Kin of Slave, Slave Owners
'Come to the Table'

The descendants of slaves and of slave-owners are finding understanding, reconciliation and common ground in a pioneering program under EMU’s Practice Institute. It’s called “Coming to the Table.”

At a January 2006 conference held on campus, EMU employee Will Hairston spent three days in the company of descendants of slaves that had been owned eight or so generations ago by Will’s ancestor, Peter Hairston and his white offspring. These white Hairstons, of Irish-Scottish origins, owned plantations in Virginia and North Carolina until the Civil War ended slavery.

The Hairstons and a dozen other people made up a group of 20, all with black or white ancestors traceable to the southern U.S.’s slave economy. Over three days they shared stories, photographs, presentations, rituals of healing, and food. At the end, they said in various ways, “Amen. Wish we had done this before. Wish others knew how wonderfully uplifting this could be – personally and for society at large. Let’s keep at this work.”

Will says the initiative for white and black Hairston relatives to meet came from the African American side of the family years ago. Jester Hairston, an actor and musician who performed across the U.S. in the 1930s and ’40s, would look up Hairstons in phone books and contact them, regardless of color. Then John Hairston invited Will’s father to attend the African American Hairston family reunion and to be a keynote speaker.

Deeply affected by the black family reunions he attended, Will became the motivating force behind Coming to the Table.

Descendants of one of this country’s early presidents, Thomas Jefferson, also attended January’s Coming to the Table conference. Shay Banks-Young, who is descended from Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, one of Jefferson’s slaves, conferred alongside David Works, who is descended from Jefferson’s relationship with his wife, Martha.

Joint family reunions at Monticello, Jefferson’s home, have often been tense and conflict-ridden. Coming to the Table proved to be healing.

Said Banks-Young: “This particular event took us away from the conflict and gave us a different view. It helped us to get quiet and simply talk as people. Another benefit is seeing that there are other families like us and to find out it’s okay for all of us to get together and talk.”

Said Works: “Until you embrace the past, you can’t really go into the future. I didn’t inherit any plantations, but is there a plantation in my own mind? The black side of our family had a completely different upbringing than I did, a completely different point of view on things. This event took us to a whole new level, much further than I thought it would ever go – into the stratosphere! It got us communicating.”

For information, visit www.emu.edu/cjp/comingtothetable. To be part of this journey of discovery and relationship-building, contact Practice Institute program associate Amy Potter, organizer for Coming to the Table, at (540) 432-4687.

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