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A Powerful Evening with George Foote and Cleo Brown
In late April, Episcopal continued its Courageous Conversations series with “Witness to the Truth” author Cleo Scott Brown and local Alexandria attorney George Foote gracing Fox Stage in Pendleton Hall to discuss with students the importance of activism, allyship, cross-racial collaboration, and healing in solving the social and political ills facing our country. In addition to “Witness to the Truth,” Brown is also the author of “Raceology 101 Fundamentals for Understanding & Change.” She currently heads the History Matters Institute, an organization dedicated to “using history to generate insightful, meaningful discussions about race relations, voting, and class.”
Brown is the daughter of Black minister and voting rights activist John Scott, who won enfranchisement for Black voters in Louisiana in 1962. Judges and lawyers of the area, who were Foote’s White family members, opposed Scott’s actions. Each of these struggles were published in Brown’s book, “Witness to the Truth,” which tells the extraordinary true story of John Scott and his courageous campaign to win back the right to vote for African Americans in Lake Providence, La.
Throughout the enlightening evening discussion, Brown and Foote’s friendship was clearly evident, as was their united opposition to individual and systemic racism. Moderated by Senior Associate Director of Admissions and International Student Coordinator Tran Kim-Senior, the conversation opened with both guests reading a statement entitled “We the Jim Crow Generation.”
“We, the members of the last Jim Crow generation, were raised on extreme division,” Brown reflected. “We are the children whose relatives were lynched or run out of town. But we are also the children whose parents did the threats and the lynchings. We are the children attacked while integrating white schools. And we are also the children who did the attacking.”
The essay illustrated the juxtaposing experiences of White and Black children during the Jim Crow era. Brown echoes similar sentiments, in her prose, about her father’s fight for voting rights. “People ask me why my father was compelled to fight for voting rights despite all the odds he faced. Because the law controls everything,” the award-winning author expressed. “If you have no voice in anything that happens in your time, then you are at the whims of whoever is in control.” At the top of the hierarchical ladder, challenging voting rights at the time were some of Foote’s relatives.
After Foote read Brown’s book, he was shocked to learn his relatives’ real history and their role in opposing voting rights for Black people. “I was born in Louisiana during the Jim Crow era, and schools were not desegregated by the time I graduated,” Foote said. “Reading the book, delving deeper into the history, and talking to Cleo about her experiences was an eye-opener for me, and it was educational.” He credits Brown with making their many conversations rewarding because of the unyielding grace she showed to him and his family.
“We say grace many times, to me, the word means a favor, but more importantly, an unmerited favor,” he said. “When I finally said who my relatives were, there was a pause, there was a moment, but then Cleo just kept talking to me like a human being, like a person.”
Currently serving as the outside general counsel to the United States Institute of Peace, Foote decided to eliminate his shame and guilt after discovering his family history. He acknowledges his family tree, but he also focuses on addressing the past and working hard to repair the damage done to society. “I don’t think any person living today needs to take on the shame and the guilt about what people in the past did. If I can pay more attention to remedying the current damage and gaps, we’re all better off than if I obsess about the shame or, much worse, try to defend my family’s actions.”
Foote and Brown inspired students, faculty, and staff through their unlikely friendship. They left students with a final plea –– to get involved through three steps: knowledge, care, and political activism.
“To be a good citizen, you have to realize that everything that happens in your community will find a way to end up impacting you one way or another,” Brown said. “When I was a child, I did not feel swept up; I always felt a sense of power. I always felt involved. I felt knowledgeable about what needed to be done. The more you engage, the more power you will feel over your own lives.”
