The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, historically Black Johnson C. Smith University, and Queens University of Charlotte have formed the Charlotte Racial Justice Consortium to support racial healing and transformation in the community. The effort will mount a concerted effort to discover and publicize Charlotte’s many racial truths; encourage a community that understands its history of race and racism; and develop student, university, and community leaders who work across the region toward truth, racial healing, and equity.
The consortium will launch the Charlotte Racial Equity Leadership Fellows program. Six students from each campus will be selected to participate in a year-long reflection of Charlotte’s history of racism and its connection to each university while exploring racial equity and developing leadership skills. The fellowship will culminate in unique, student-led projects on the three campuses designed to foster truth, racial healing, and transformation.
The consortium will engage the broader Charlotte community in this work of racial reconciliation. The circles will rotate monthly between the three campuses starting in late summer, and welcome community members throughout the city to reflect, share truths and collaboratively create a new racial narrative.