Beloved Community Dialogues

“The Beloved Community is a global vision in which all people can share the wealth of the earth through economic and social justice.”
“The end is reconciliation, the end is redemption, the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends."

- Dr. Martin Luther King

Questions we discuss in our Beloved Community Dialogues

• Why did the freedom seekers leave?
• How did they have the courage to leave for a place they had never been?
• Was it a braver thing to stay, or was it braver to go?
• Would I have helped the freedom seekers?

Restore Cleveland Hope tells the stories of freedom seekers and the abolitionists who helped them. We connect the lessons from the past to the challenges of today.

Stories we tell

• The Sacrifice of Lucy Bagby (What to do? “Save the Union” or save Lucy)
• John Malvin: A free Black man in the free state of Ohio
• John Brown, the barber, Black businessman, and abolitionist
• Ohio’s Constitution and Black laws: Systemic racism from the beginning
• Andrew Cozad: A man of principle facing moral dilemmas
• The Barber’s Betrayal: Things are not always what they seem
• Underground Railroad (UGRR) in early University Circle (on-site at the Cozad-Bates House)
• Escape from Station Hope at St. John’s Episcopal Church (on-site at the church)
• UGRR civil disobedience in the face of “unjust” laws