How Grassroots Truth and Reconciliation Movements can Further the Fight for Social Justice in U.S. Communities

Abstract

Across the United States, people in communities burdened by economic injustice and political marginalization, violence, and longstanding legacies of oppression are turning towards truth and reconciliation commissions as an innovative way to address persistent inequalities. Such commissions have been organized under government auspices in other countries dealing with the aftermath of terrible civil wars and ethnic violence. In the United States, the process is driven from the grass roots rather than by government officials. How does this mechanism actually work in American communities as a form of community organizing for social justice?