Martin Luther King, Jr. articulates his vision of the beloved community in four steps:

• Learning our history, as painful as that may be;
• Developing a process by which discussion of these things can lead to mutual compassion;
• Crafting a vision for community where everyone has a seat at the table;
• Realizing sacrifice: what are we prepared to give up or lay down in order to form such a community?

Traces of the Trade can serve as a tool to support you in creating that beloved community in your own faith group and the broader society, and the Tracing Center offers offers a variety of programs designed to support and extend that process.

If you are interested in showing the film without the use of trained Tracing Center speakers or facilitators, you may be interested in our facilitator’s guide and in our discussion guide for viewers of the film, or in the faith-based discussion guide prepared under the auspices of the UUA.

There are additional resource materials available in the links on the right. These include essays on concerns frequently encountered among discussion participants of various racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as additional historical and other background materials.

Two resources of particular interest for faith communities are “Ideas for Congregations” and “Actions of Faith Communities.”